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HARVARD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 
CAMBRIDGE,  MASS.,  U.S.A. 


HARVARD  ECONOMIC  STUDIES 

PUBLISHED  UNDER  THE  DIRECTION   OF 
THE  DEPARTMENT  OF  ECONOMICS 

VOL.  XIX 


Mexj, 


I  p  Merida 

Bay    of,  /Y[T]fATA.\| 

"T* °  Jajapa      Campeche  PCampeche 

Puebla"'^  dJeraCri,^     ..■  y      \ 

(    Isthmus  of  Ji 
ao    Tehuantepee y  (^ 

"*  >Jc.uerto  Caballds 


'B 


THE  SPANISH  INDIES 

NORTH  OF  THE  EQUATOR 
IN  THE  XVI  AND  XVII  CENTURIES 

SCALE  or  Miles 


100       200 


400 


100" 


Longitude         West 


TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

BETWEEN  SPAIN  AND 

THE  INDIES 

IN  THE  TIME  OF  THE  HAPSBURGS 


BY 

CLARENCE  HENRY  HARING,  Ph.D. 

ASSISTANT  PROFESSOR  OF  HISTORY 
IN  YALE  UNIVERSITY 


? 


CAMBRroGE 
HARVARD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

LONDON:  HUMPHREY  MILFORD 

Oxford  Universitv  Press 

1918 


.Hi 


COPYRIGHT,  I918 
HARVARD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 


Bancroft  Library 


DEDICATORIA 
A  ELENA 


C.  H.  H. 


CONTENTS 


PREFACE xi 

BIBLIOGRAPHY XV 

PART   ONE 

CHAPTER  I 
The  Seville  Monopoly 3 

Beginnings  of  American  trade.  The  Seville  monopoly.  The  ordinance 
of  1529.    The  Canary  Islands. 

CHAPTER  II 
The  Casa  de  Contratacion 21 

Its  original  purpose.  The  ordinances  of  1503,  1510,  and  1552.  Hydro- 
graphic  bureau  and  school  of  navigation.  The  Casa  as  a  court  of  law. 
The  Consulado. 

CHAPTER  III 
Organization  vs.  Efficiency 46 

The  President  of  the  Casa.  New  duties  for  the  Treasurer.  The  Pur- 
veyor-General. Artillery.  Quicksilver.  Deputy  Auditor  and  Tri- 
bunal de  la  Contaduria  de  Averlas.  Alguacil  Mayor.  Supernumerary 
Oflficials.    Alcaide  y  Guarda  Mayor.   Sala  de  Justicia. 

CHAPTER  IV 
Registers  and  Customs 59 

Averia.   Almojarifazgo.   Derechos  de  Toneladas.   The  royal  accounts. 

CHAPTER  V 
Emigration  and  the  Foreign  Interloper 96 

PoUcy  of  Isabella.  Of  Charles  V.  Of  Philip  II.  Licenses.  Jews  and 
heretics.  Early  efforts  to  promote  emigration.  Trade  restricted  to 
Spaniards  and  naturalized  foreigners.  Evasion  of  the  law.  Clandestine 
trade  at  Seville  and  Cadiz.    Contraband  trade  in  America. 


Vlll  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  VI 
The  Spanish  Monopoly 123 

Paternalism  of  the  government.  Measures  affecting  agriculture.  Tex- 
tiles. Caracas  tobacco.  Effect  of  the  social  and  ecclesiastical  policy  of 
the  Crown.  Articles  forbidden  to  be  carried  to  the  Indies.  Restriction 
of  trade  to  the  wealthier  merchants.  Major  and  minor  ports  in  the 
Indies.  The  "  question  of  Buenos  Aires."  The  Philippine  commerce. 
Trade  between  Peru  and  New  Spain.  Corruption  of  colonial  officials. 
Failure  of  the  Spanish  system. 

CHAPTER  VII 
The  Precious  Metals 155 

Royalties  from  American  mines.  Use  of  quicksilver.  Remittances  of 
bullion.  Seizure  of  private  treasure  by  the  Crown.  "  Benevolences  " 
from  Sevillan  merchants.  Evil  results  of  these  practices.  Compra- 
dores  de  Ore  y  Plata. 

CHAPTER  VIII 
The  Isthmus  of  Panama 180 

Portage  between  the  two  oceans.  Nombre  de  Dios  and  Porto  Bello. 
The  city  of  Panama.  j/TKe  isthmian  fair.    The  project  of  a  canal. 


PART   TWO 

CHAPTER  IX 
Galleons  and  Flotas 201 

Early  regulations  for  fleets  and  convoys.  Armadas  de  la  Guardia  de  la 
Carrera  de  las  Indias.  Size  of  the  fleets.  Their  decline.  Cargoes  on 
men-of-war.  Captains  general  and  other  officers.  Course  of  the  fleets 
to  and  from  the  West  Indies.    Mail  boats. 

CHAPTER  X 
Cqrsarios  Luteranos 231 

Frenchmen  in  the  West  Indies  in  the  sixteenth  century.  Captain  Wil- 
liam Jackson.  The  Dutch  West  India  Company.  Piet  Heyn.  Jacques 
rHermite.  Cornelius  JoU.  Cromwell's  West  Indian  enterprise.  Blake 
at  Santa  Cruz.  English  policy  after  the  Restoration.  The  buccan- 
neers.    Armadas  de  Barlovento.     Spanish  privateers. 


CONTENTS  IX 

CHAPTER  XI 
Ships  and  Navigators  (I) 258 

Ownership  and  origin  of  vessels  in  the  India  navigation.  Crews.  Size 
and  types  of  Spanish  ships.  Alvaro  Bazan.  Pero  Men6ndez  de  AviI6s. 
Shipbuilding  in  the  colonies.  Its  decline  in  Spain.  Ordinances  relating 
to  the  equipment,  manning  and  armament  of  Atlantic  vessels. 
Rations.  Licenses.  :?^ght  contracts.  Marine  insurance.  Inspection 
of  ships  and  cargoes.    Disregard  of  the  regulations.    Shipwrecks. 

CHAPTER  XII 

Ships  and  Navigators  (II)     298 

Nautical  instruction  and  examinations  at  the  Casa.  Maps  and  map- 
making.  Nautical  science  in  Spain  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries.  Pilots,  masters,  and  captains.  Wages  of  Spanish  seamen. 
Universidad  de  los  Mareantes  de  Sevilla. 

APPENDICES 

I.  The  Casa  Lonja 325 

ii.  ''  libro  de  situados,"  or  salaries  and  pensions 
Paid  out  of  the  Funds  of  the  Casa  de  Contra- 

TACION 326 

III.  AvERiA  Collected  on  the  Cargoes  of  the  India 

Fleets,  1537-61 327 

Rate  of  the  AverIa  paid  on  Articles  imported 
FROM  THE  Indies,  1557-64 328 

rV.  Receipts  of  the  Treasurers  of  the  Casa  de  Con- 

TRATACION,    1503-9O 329 

V.  Remittances  of  Bullion  from  New  Spain,  1522- 
1601 332 

VI.  Royal  "  quinto  ''  of  the  Sil\^r  extracted  from 
PoTosi,  1556-1640 S33 

VII.  Value  in  Maravedis  of  the  Royal  Treasure  on 
THE  Principal  Fleets  Returning  from  the  Indies 

BETWEEN   1538  AND   1556 336 


X  CONTENTS 

Vni.  Registered  Vessels  Sailing  to  and  from  the 

Indies,  1504-55 339 

IX.  Wages  on  Vessels  in  the  India  Navigation.    Six- 
teenth Century 342 

Schedule  of  Monthly  Wages  on  a  Galleon  of 
500  Tons  in  the  Armada  Real — XVII  Century?  343 

X.  Ordinances  of  the  Consul  ado  of  Seville  Relat- 
ing TO  Marine  Insurance 344 

INDEX 355 


PREFACE 

It  is  an  historical  commonplace  that  with  the  discovery  of  the 
western  hemisphere  and  of  the  Portuguese  route  to  the  East, 
European  trade  expanded  from  a  continental  and  Mediterranean 
into  a  world  commerce.  The  mapping  of  new  sea  routes  revolu- 
tionized the  conditions  of  mercantile  traffic.  Till  then  coasting 
and  overland  trade  had  predominated ;  about  Europe  galleys  and 
clumsy  sailing  barges  of  a  hundred  tons  or  less  were  generally 
sufficient  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  contemporary  merchant. 
But  from  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  ocean  trade  assumed  the 
first  place,  and  galleons  and  carracks  challenged  the  secrets  of  the 
outer  seas.  The  shores  of  the  Atlantic  became  the  centre  of  inter- 
national exchange,  and  the  commercial  hegemony  of  Europe 
passed  from  the  cities  of  Renaissance  Italy  to  the  maritime  states 
in  the  west.  With  the  capture  of  Constantinople,  moreover,  and 
the  destruction  of  the  Mamelukes  in  Egypt,  the  Ottoman  Turks 
were  masters  of  all  the  routes  to  India.  The  explorations  of  the 
Portuguese  freed  Europe  from  this  thralldom  to  the  Infidel,  and 
the  discoveries  of  the  Spaniards  revealed  a  new  world  with  riches 
undreamed  of  in  the  countinghouses  of  Venice.  In  Spain  and 
Portugal  suddenly  flowered  the  age  of  their  greatest  material 
prosperity,  and  the  powerful  influence  they  exerted  in  the  six- 
teenth century  on  the  political  fortunes  of  Europe  was  in  no  small 
measure  made  possible  by  their  conquests  in  the  eastern  and  the 
western  Indies. 

In  the  two  centuries  before  Columbus,  the  lack  of  precious 
metals  to  meet  the  requirements  of  an  expanding  mercantile 
activity  came  to  be  felt  with  increasing  severity.  The  production 
of  bullion  in  the  few  mines  worked  in  Europe  was  small  and  un- 
certain. A  variety  of  circumstances,  such  as  trade  with  Asia,  the 
transforming  of  gold  and  silver  into  plate  and  jewels,  and  the 
accumulation  of  ecclesiastical  treasure,  had  so  far  offset  the  out- 
put of  the  mines  as  probably  to  deplete  the  stock  of  money  in 
circulation.    It  was  the  crying  need  for  gold  which  fostered  an 


Xll  PREFACE 

increase  of  alchemy  toward  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages;  and  one 
of  the  principal  motives  which  led  to  the  discovery  of  the  New 
World  was  the  conviction  that  by  sailing  westward  might  be 
found  Marco  Polo's  golden  land  of  Zipangu.  The  precious  com- 
modity was  not  obtained  from  Zipangu,  but  in  the  barbarian 
empires  of  Peru  and  Mexico.  The  masses  of  gold  and  silver 
brought  from  America  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries 
were  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  actual  needs  of  the  moment,  and 
became  the  most  important  cause  of  the  price  revolution  of  that 
era. 

It  was  Spain,  the  discoverer,  which  first  engrossed  the  entire 
New  World,  and  through  Spain  in  the  sixteenth  century  passed 
virtually  all  the  commerce  with  the  west.  Not  till  toward  the  end 
of  that  century  did  the  northern  maritime  nations,  France,  Hol- 
land, and  England,  turn  their  thoughts  to  the  possession  of 
colonial  states  in  America,  or  seriously  dispute  with  Spain  her 
exclusive  trade  and  dominion  there.  And  the  Spanish  govern- 
ment accepted  the  task  of  colonization  with  the  most  painstaking 
seriousness.  With  high  ideals  of  order  and  justice,  of  religious 
and  political  unity,  it  extended  to  its  ultramarine  possessions  its 
faith,  its  language,  its  law,  and  its  administration;  built  churches 
and  monasteries;  founded  schools  and  universities;  in  short, 
endeavored  to  make  its  colonies  an  integral  part  of  the  Spanish 
monarchy.^  Emigration  was  carefully  watched  to  keep  them  free 
from  the  contamination  of  heresy  and  foreigners;  and  trade  and 
navigation  were  organized  with  the  same  infinite  care  for  detail 
that  characterized  social  and  political  activities. 

If  the  actual  results  of  Spanish  colonial  policy  fell  far  below 
these  ideals,  yet  they  were  results  by  no  means  to  be  despised.  A 
Spaniard  could  write,  little  more  than  a  century  after  Columbus: 

...  (en  las  Indias)  se  han  edificado  70,000  iglesias,  500  conventos  de  las 
religiones  de  Santo  Domingo,  San  Francisco,  San  Agustin,  la  Merced,  y 
Compania  de  Jesus  .  .  .  que  tenian  .  .  .  mas  de  3,000  religiosos  en  con- 
ventos y  doctrinas,  k  los  quales  da  el  Rey  para  vino  y  azeite,  y  curar  los 
infermos,  47,000  pesos  de  limosna,  y  les  haze  el  gasto  hasta  ponerles  en 

*  P.  P.  Leroy  Beaulieu,  De  la  colonisation  chez  les  peuples  modemes  (ed.  of  1908), 
i,  pp,  4  f . 


PREFACE  XIU 

Indias.  Hanse  erigido  para  le  enseilanza  dellas  y  buen  goviemo  muchas 
doctrinas,  un  patriarchate,  seis  arcobispados,  treinta  y  dos  obispados,  tres 
inquisiciones,  dos  universidades,  dos  virreynados,  once  audiencias,  muchos 
gobiernos,  corregimientos,  y  presidios  para  defensa  de  aquellas  costas;  y  se 
ban  fimdado  mas  de  200  ciudades,  y  muchas  villas,  colonias  de  nuestra 
Espana,  que  tienen  el  mismo  traje,  lengua,  costumbres  y  leyes  .  .  .  Reynos 
tan  opulentos  que  pone  asombro  considerar  de  espacio  la  immensidad  de 
riquezas  que  han  venido  de  aquel  Orbe  S.  nuestra  Espana,  que  passan,  con- 
forme  k  un  memorial  que  yo  vi,  de  1,500  millones  de  oro  y  plata,  hasta  el 
aiio  de  161 7  con  registro,  sin  los  que  han  venido  sin  esta  razon.  Y  consta 
que  de  solo  el  cerro  de  Potosl  se  han  sacado  de  las  venas  de  su  cuerpo,  desde 
el  ano  de  1545,  260  millones  de  plata;  y  no  entran  en  esta  cuenta  las  piedras 
preciosas,  agogue,  mermellon,  cochinilla,  grana  fina,  grana  silvestre,  anir, 
agucar,  cueros,  almizele,  palo  de  campeche,  palo  brasilece,  clavo  de  comer, 
choculate,  ^arjaparilla,  canafistola,  topar,  tabaco,  cobre,  y  otras  infinitas 
cosas.  .  .  .* 

It  is  a  description  of  the  trade  and  navigation  between  Spain 
and  the  New  World,  of  the  conunerce  which  made  possible  the 
creation  of  this  Spanish-American  civilization,  that  will  be 
attempted  in  the  following  pages.  Part  of  the  material  in 
Chapter  VII  was  embodied  in  an  article  printed  in  the  Quarterly 
Journal  of  Economics,  in  May,  191 5,  and  the  second  half  of 
Chapter  VIII  is  largely  an  adaptation  of  another  article, 
"  Espaiia  y  el  Canal  de  Panama,''  which  appeared  in  Hispania 
(London)  in  December,  191 2.  I  take  the  opportunity  here  to 
acknowledge  the  kind  offices  of  D.  Pedro  Torres  Lanzas,  Direc- 
tor of  the  Archivo  de  Indias  at  Seville,  and  of  Captain  Arias, 
Chief  of  the  Hydrographic  Bureau  in  Madrid.  I  also  desire  to 
express  my  indebtedness  to  Professor  E.  F.  Gay  of  Harvard  Uni- 
versity for  certain  very  useful  suggestions,  to  G.  W.  Robinson, 
who  very  kindly  checked  the  bibhography  and  footnotes,  and  to 
Professor  R.  B.  Merriman  for  his  helpful  criticism  and  unfailing 
sympathy  throughout  the  course  of  the  present  work.  To  Pro- 
fessor Merriman,  indeed,  I  am  under  the  very  deepest  obliga- 
tion, for  to  him  I  owe  my  initial  interest  in  things  Spanish  and 
Spanish-American. 

Yale  UNiVERsnY,  New  Haven, 
March,  19 17. 

^  G.  Gonzalez  Ddvila,  Teatro  de  las  grandezas  de  la  Villa  de  Madrid  (Madrid, 
1623),  pp.  471  f. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The  goal  of  all  investigators  of  Spanish  colonial  history  is  the  great  col- 
lection of  state  papers  comprised  in  the  Archivo  delndias,  and  preserved 
in  the  old  Merchants*  Exchange,  or  Casa  Lonja,  of  Seville.  For  the 
first  two  centuries  of  colonization,  the  period  covered  by  this  mono- 
graph, the  collection  includes  most  of  the  documentary  sources  of  an 
official  or  semi-official  character.  The  organization  of  a  separate 
Archivo  de  Indias  was  not  undertaken  till  near  the  close  of  the  reign  of 
Charles  III  (1784),  most  government  papers,  including  those  relating 
to  America,  having  been  sent  to  the  general  repository  at  Simancas. 
And  although  it  was  intended  that  all  colonial  records  should  be 
removed  from  Simancas  and  elsewhere  to  the  new  office,  the  separation 
and  transfer  of  documents  for  a  long  time  fell  far  short  of  the  exactness 
and  completeness  desired.  Many  remained  behind,  and  later  many 
more  of  the  same  class  continued  to  be  sent  to  Simancas.  K  things 
move  slowly  in  Spain,  however,  they  do  move,  and  eventually  the 
oldest  legajos  or  bundles  of  MSS.  were  in  great  part  forwarded  to 
Seville.  Apparently  there  are  between  600  and  700  still  in  the  north, 
almost  all  belonging  to  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries,  and 
most  of  them  of  little  importance  for  the  history  of  trade  and  naviga- 
tion. This  does  not  include  some  thousands  of  legajos  of  financial 
papers  and  accoimts  emanating  from  the  Council  of  the  Hacienda  and 
from  the  various  tribunals  of  the  Contaduria  which  composed  the 
elaborate  financial  machinery  of  the  monarchy.  In  these  legajos  may 
be  found  scattered  many  documents  relating  to  the  colonial  exchequer. 

In  Madrid,  the  Archivo  Historico-Nacional  contains  little  of  im- 
portance, apart  from  the  minutes  of  the  Council  of  the  Indies,  for  the 
period  before  the  eighteenth  century.  The  Hydrographic  Office 
(Direccion  de  Hidrografia)  possesses  the  transcripts  of  Navarrete,  the 
Vargas  y  Ponce  collection,  useful  for  the  history  of  the  Spanish  marine, 
and  a  few  late  financial  and  economic  papers.  But  one  may  very  well 
study  the  colonial  trade  of  Hapsburg  Spain  without  seeing  Madrid. 

While  Spanish  scholars  in  the  nineteenth  century  have  produced 
few  works  of  capital  interest  relating  to  their  splendid  colonial  past, 
none  have  been  more  assiduous  in  the  publication  of  collections  of 
historical  sources.    Carelessness  and  inaccuracies  are  not  infrequent 


xvi  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

in  these  great  "  colecciones,"  but  the  American  student  is  grateful  not- 
withstanding for  the  means  they  afford  of  studying  Spanish  coloniza- 
tion without  having  recourse  in  every  instance  to  Spain.  A  great 
many  of  the  documents  preserved  in  Seville,  especially  for  the  first 
half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  may  be  found  in  the 

Coleccidn  de  los  viajes  y  descubrimientos  que  hicieron  por  mar  los  Espanoles 
desde  fines  del  siglo  XV.    Madrid,  1825-37.    5  vols. 

printed  by  the  government  for  that  indefatigable  scholar,  Martin 
Fernandez  de  Navarrete;  also  in  the  extensive 

Coleccidn  de  documentos  inSditos  relativos  al  descubrimiento,  conquista,  y 
colonizacidn  de  las  posesiones  espanolas  en  America  y  Oceania.  Madrid, 
1864-84.    42  vols. 

and  in  its  continuation,  published  with  a  slightly  different  title  under 
the  direction  of  the  Royal  Academy  of  History: 

Coleccidn  de  documentos  inMitos  relativos  al  descubrimiento,  conquista,  y 
organizacidn  de  las  antiguas  posesiones  espanolas  de  ultramar.  Madrid, 
1885-1900.     13  vols. 

To  supplement  one's  researches  in  the  later  Hapsburg  era,  there  are 
happily  several  other  printed  collections  also  available.    The 

Coleccidn  de  documentos  ineditos  para  la  historia  de  Espana.  Madrid, 
1842-95.     112  vols. 

includes  some  interesting  materials  for  the  years  after  1550.  But 
much  more  valuable  are  the  four  foho  volmnes  of 

Provisiones,  cedulas,  capitulos  de  ordenanzas,  instruciones  [sic],  y  cartas 
.  .  .  tocantes  al  buen  govierno  de  las  Indias,  y  administracion  de  lajusticia 
en  ellas.  Sacado  todo  ello  de  los  libros  del  dicho  Consejo  por  su  mandado, 
etc.    Madrid,  1596.    4  vols. 

gathered  and  published  by  Diego  de  Encinas,  clerk  in  the  Secretariat 
of  the  Council  of  the  Indies.  Books  i  and  iv  are  particularly  useful  for 
stud)dng  the  development  of  trade  and  navigation.  They  may  be 
supplemented  by  reference  to 

Aguiar  y  Acuna,  R.  de.  Sumarios  de  la  recopilacidn  general  de  las  leyes. 
y  ordenanzas,  provisiones,  cedulas,  instrucciones  .  .  .  para  las  Indias 
Occidentales.    Madrid,  1626.^ 

and 

Puga,  Vasco  de.    Cedulario.    Mexico,  1563.* 

*  Brit.  Mus.,  501.  y.  10. 

*  There  is  a  copy  of  this  very  rare  collection  in  the  Harvard  College  Library. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  XVU 

the  latter  comprising  all  the  decrees  in  force  in  New  Spain  at  the  date 
of  its  publication.  The  ordinances  of  the  Casa  de  Contrataci6n  and 
of  the  Council  of  the  Indies  were  frequently  printed  in  the  course  of 
the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries;  the  former  at  Seville  in  1552, 
Madrid,  1585,  Valladolid,  1604,  and  Seville,  1647;  the  latter  some- 
times in  conjunction  with  those  of  the  Casa,  and  separately  in  1603, 
1636,  and  1 68 1.  Ordinances  of  the  gild  merchant,  or  Consulado,  of 
Seville  were  also  published,  first  in  1556,  and  again  in  1585.  Copies  of 
one  or  more  of  these  imprints  may  usually  be  found  in  the  more  im- 
portant libraries. 

Two  collections  of  sources  published  in  Paris  may  also  be  used  with 
profit:  the 

Recueil  des  voyages,  relations  et  mSmoires  originaux  pour  servir  d  Vhistoire 
de  la  dicouverte  de  VAmerique.     20  vols. 

taken  mostly  from  the  Munoz  MSS.,  and  printed  by  Ternaux-Compans 
in  1837-41;  and  the  group  of  French  documents  edited  by  Pierre 
Margry,  called 

Relations  et  mimoires  inidits  pour  servir  d  Vhistoire  de  la  France  dans  les 
pays  d^outremer.    Paris,  1867. 

Other  printed  materials  consulted,  referring  especially  to  Central 
and  South  America,  are  in  the  following: 

Memorias  de  los  vireyes  que  han  gobernado  el  Peril  durante  el  tiempo  del 

coloniaje  espanol.    Lima,  1859.    6  vols. 

Memorias  de  vireyes.     Marques  de  Mancera  y  Conde  de  Salvatierra. 

Lima,  1899. 

Nueva  coleccidn  de  documentos  iniditos  para  la  historia  de  Espana  y  de 

sus  Indias.    Madrid,  1892-96.    6  vols. 

Peralta,  M.  M.  de.    Costa  Rica,  Nicaragua,  y  Panamd  en  el  siglo  xvi. 

Madrid,  1883. 

Relaciones  de  los  vireyes  y  audiencias  que  han  gobernado  el  Peril.    Lima, 

1867-72.    3  vols. 

Relaciones  histdricas  y  geogrdficas  de  America  Central.    Madrid,  1908. 

{Colecc.  de  libros  ,  ,  .  refer entes  d  la  historia  de  America.    Vol.  viii.) 

Ruidlaz  y  Caravia,  Eugenio.    La  Florida:  su  conquista  y  colonizacidn 

por  Pedro  Menindez  de  Aviles.    Madrid,  1893.    2  vols. 

Serrano  y  Sanz,  M.    El  Archivo  de  Indias  y  las  exploraciones  del  istmo  de 

Panamd  en  los  anos  iS2y  d  1534.    Madrid,  191 1. 

An  extraordinarily  valuable  work,  and  one  for  all  intents  and  pur- 
poses a  *  source,'  is  the  Norte  de  la  contratacidn  de  las  Indias  Occiden- 
tales,  published  by  Joseph  de  Veitia  Linaje  in  1672,^  the  only  treatise 

^  The  English  translation  by  Capt.  John  Stevens,  published  in  London  about 
1700,  is  very  much  abridged  from  the  original. 


xviii  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

on  the  organization  of  Spanish  colonial  commerce  before  the  eighteenth 
century.  Veitia  Linaje  was  for  thirty  years  a  member  of  the  Casa, 
and  from  1659  its  treasurer.  He  therefore  possessed  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  mechanism  of  the  trade  in  all  its  infinite  and  meticu- 
lous details.  This  fact,  indeed,  accounts  for  the  principal  shortcomings 
of  his  book.  As  pointed  out  in  the  suggestive  essay  by  J.  M.  Piernas 
y  Hurtado  {La  Casa  de  la  Contratacidn  de  las  Indias,  Madrid,  1907), 
it  is  the  faithful  testimony  of  a  zealous  functionary,  more  concerned 
with  the  formulas  of  administration,  and  the  particulars  of  official 
precedence  and  etiquette,  than  with  the  life  and  spirit  of  the  institution 
to  which  he  belonged  and  its  influence  for  the  common  weal.  While, 
therefore,  the  machinery  is  well  explained,  there  is  little  or  no  commen- 
tary, where  commentary  would  be  most  welcome  and  illuminating. 
Yet  the  work  is  based  upon  a  detailed  study  of  the  voluminous  archives 
at  the  writer's  disposition,  and  is  extremely  well  documented,  at  least 
for  the  years  following  1550.  With  the  period  of  the  Catholic  Kings 
and  of  their  grandson  the  Emperor,  Veitia  Linaje  for  some  reason 
shows  little  real  acquaintance.  Yet  the  documents  were  still  in  exist- 
ence, for  they  survive  to-day  in  Seville  for  those  who  care  to  go  and 
read.  It  is  likely  that  they  were  then  hidden  away  in  the  old  castle  at 
Simancas,  therefore  to  a  Spanish  gentleman  and  scholar  of  the  leisurely 
seventeenth  century  for  all  practical  purposes  inaccessible. 

One  of  the  sources  most  used  by  modern  writers  on  this  subject  — 
Roscher,  Bourne,  Dahlgren,  and  others  —  is  the  entirely  natural  and 
obvious  one,  the  Recopilacidn  de  leyes  de  los  reynos  de  las  IndiaSy  pub- 
lished by  command  of  Charles  II  in  1681  (Madrid,  4  vols.).  But  for 
the  study  of  historical  development  these  Laws  of  the  Indies  are  a 
very  slender  reed  to  lean  upon.  The  marginal  notes  giving  the  dates 
of  the  promulgation  of  the  laws  are  untrustworthy,  in  that  they  fre- 
quently do  not  go  back  to  the  time  when  the  ruling  was  originally 
issued.  Some  of  the  laws,  referred  to  early  cedulas,  were  altered  in 
wording  to  fit  the  situation  in  1680,  though  no  indication  is  vouchsafed 
of  the  change.  Others  as  they  appear  in  the  Recopilacidn  are  a  com- 
pilation of  several  earlier  decrees  published  at  widely  different  times; 
and  it  is  impossible  to  distinguish  from  the  text  alone  the  clauses  due 
to  one  decree  from  those  due  to  another.  Whenever  possible,  there- 
fore, I  have  avoided  the  Laws  of  the  Indies  as  a  sole  authority,  and  as  a 
rule  have  referred  to  them  only  for  lack  of  a  better  source. 

The  early  chroniclers  of  Spanish  American  history,  such  as  Peter 
Martyr,  Las  Casas,  Gomara,  Oviedo,  and  Herrera,  all  except  the  last 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  XIX 

more  or  less  contemporary,  are  too  well  known  to  warrant  lengthy 
comment  here.  Except  in  so  far  as  they  pause  to  describe  the  natural 
products  and  conditions  of  the  New  World,  their  interests  are  not 
generally  those  of  the  economic  historian.  Yet  they  yield  here  and 
there  scraps  of  information  extremely  valuable  in  tracing  the  agricul- 
tural and  industrial  growth  of  the  colonies.  Herrera's  great  work, 
which  partakes  least  of  the  nature  of  a  chronicle,  is  based  either  on  the 
narratives  of  his  predecessors  or  on  official  documents  which  for  the 
most  part  still  survive.  He  is  chiefly  useful,  therefore,  to  students  to 
whom  the  printed  and  manuscript  sources  are  unavailable.  Of  con- 
temporary narratives  of  a  more  purely  descriptive  character,  records 
of  travel  and  observation  in  the  western  hemisphere,  the  following  are 
the  most  noteworthy  and  are  generally  available  in  the  larger  libraries: 

Acosta,  Jos6  de.    Eistoria  natural  y  moral  de  las  Indias.    Seville,  1590. 

(Tr.  for  the  Hakluyt  See,  1880.) 

Benzoni,  Girolamo.    Eistoria  del  mondo  nuovo.    Venice,  1565.    (Tr.  for 

the  Hakluyt  Soc,  1857.) 

Cieza  de  Leon,  Pedro.    Crdnica  del  Peri*.    Part  I.    Seville,  1553.    (Tr. 

for  the  Hakluyt  Soc,  1864.) 

Gage,  Thomas.  The  English  American ,  or  a  new  Survey  of  the  West  Indies. 

London,  1648. 

The  Geografia y  descripcidn  universal  de  las  Indias  (Madrid,  1894), com- 
piled in  1571-74  by  Lopez  de  Velasco,  Coronista  Mayor  of  the  Council 
of  the  Indies,  is  a  dictionary  of  geographical  information,  extremely 
useful  for  the  sixteenth  century,  as  is  the  gazeteer  of  Alcedo,  Diccio- 
nario  geogrdfico-histdrico  de  las  Indias  Occidentales  6  America  (Madrid, 
1 786-89.  5  vols.)  ,^  for  a  later  time.  The  fragment  of  the  Jesuit  Bernabe 
Cobo's  Eistoria  del  Nuevo  Mundo  (Seville,  1890-93.  4  vols.),  written 
presumably  in  Peru  about  1653,  comprises  a  systematic  description  of 
chmate,  minerals,  flora,  fauna,  etc.,  the  most  complete  and  painstaking 
that  the  early  Spaniards  have  left  us.  The  Politica  Indiana  of  Juan 
de  Solorzano  Pereira,  published  originally  in  Latin  in  1629-39  under 
the  title  De  Indiarum  Jure,  is  first  of  all  a  legal  treatise,  only  less  pon- 
derous than  most  legal  writings  of  that  day  and  generation;  but  it  is 
also  largely  historical,  and  very  valuable  for  the  institutional  side  of 
Spanish  colonial  society. 

Of  secondary  accounts,  the  best  and  most  comprehensive  in  many 
ways,  though  open  to  much  the  same  criticism  as  that  of  Veitia  Linaje, 
is  the  Memorias  Eistdricas  pubUshed  by  Rafael  Antunez  y  Acevedo  at 

*  Published  in  English  translation  in  London,  1812-15. 


XX  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  (i  797).  It  is  an  intelligent  historical 
description  of  the  mechanism  of  the  trade,  under  the  five  captions, 
Ports,  Ships,  Cargo,  Imposts,  and  Persons,  with  Httle  comment  or 
discussion,  and  for  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  is  based 
upon  Encinas,  Veitia  Linaje,  the  Laws  of  the  Indies,  and  Herrera. 
Later  Spanish  scholarship  has  nothing  to  offer  so  informative  as  these 
Memorias.  The  short  treatise  by  J.  M.  Piernas  y  Hurtado,  already 
alluded  to,  is  very  stimulating,  and  whets  one's  appetite  for  more  from 
the  same  distinguished  author;  but  it  has  remained  little  more  than  a 
programme  for  subsequent  development.  Danvila  y  CoUado's  essay, 
Significacidn  que  turner  on  en  el  gohierno  de  America  la  Casa  de  la  Con- 
tratacidn  de  Sevilla  y  el  Consejo  Supremo  de  las  Indias  (Madrid,  1892), 
lacks  every  quality  which  makes  that  of  Professor  Hurtado  notable. 
A.  M.  Fable's  Ensayo  histdrico  de  la  legislacidn  espanola  en  sus  estados 
de  idtramar  (Madrid,  1896)  is  a  reprint  of  the  introductions  to  certain 
volumes  in  the  Coleccidn  de  ultramar,  but  it  presents  little  more  than  a 
resume  or  paraphrase  of  the  documents  of  which  Senor  Fabie  was 
editor.  There  is  no  European  background  for  this  colonial  legislation, 
and  no  attempt  at  historical  synthesis.  The  volume  published  in  1888 
by  M.  Blanco  Herrera,  Politica  de  Espana  en  ultramar,  is  without  any 
particular  value  for  the  early  stages  of  Spanish  colonization.  Book 
viii  of  Robertson's  History  of  America,  though  published  in  1777  and 
somewhat  antiquated,  is  still  one  of  the  most  readable  Enghsh  descrip- 
tions of  the  Spanish  colonial  administrative  and  commercial  system. 
Noteworthy  modern  descriptions,  all  of  them  comparatively  brief,  are 
found  in  the  following: 

Bourne,  E.  G.    Spain  in  America.    New  York,  1904  {American  Nation 
Series,  vol.  iii.) 

Dahlgren,  E.  W.    Les  relations  commerciales  et  maritimes  entre  la  France 
ei  les  cotes  de  Vocian  Pacifique.    Vol.  i.    Paris,  1909. 
Lannoy,  Charles  de,  and  Linden,  Herman  vander.     Histoire  de  V expan- 
sion coloniale  des  peuples  EuropSens.   Vol.  i,  Portugal  et  Espagne.   Paris, 
1907. 

Leroy  Beaulieu,  P.  P.    De  la  colonisation  chez  les  peuples  modernes.    6th 
ed.,  Paris,  1908.    2  vols. 

Roscher,  W.    The  Spanish  Colonial  System.    (Tr.  by  E.  G.  Bourne.) 
New  York,  1904. 

Scelle,  G.   La  traite  negriere  aux  Indes  de  Castille.   Vols,  i  and  ii.    Paris, 
1906.* 

1  Zimmennann's  Die  KolonialpoUtik  Portugals  und  Spaniens  (Berlin,   1890)    a 
touches  but  very  lightly  the  economic  side  of  Spanish  colonization.  ' 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  xxi 

A  Peruvian  Jesuit,  Ricardo  Cappa,  has  written  a  series  of  studies  on 
early  Spanish  American  society,  Estudios  crfticos  acerca  de  la  domino- 
cidn  espanola  en  America  (Madrid,  1889-97.  20  vols.),  volumes  vii  to 
X  of  which  treat  of  the  beginnings  of  manufacturing  industries  in  the 
colonies.  They  include  many  details  which  it  is  difficult  or  impossible 
to  find  elsewhere.  For  Dutch  activities  in  the  Caribbean  and  on  the 
coasts  of  Brazil,  see  the  articles  by  George  Edmundson  in  volumes 
xi-xix  of  the  English  Historical  Review,  Earlier  accounts,  almost 
entirely  military  and  political,  are  those  of  Netscher  {Les  Eollandais 
au  Bresil,  Paris,  1853)  and  Varnhagen  {Historia  das  lutas  comos  Hoi- 
landezes  no  Brazil  desde  1624  a  16^4,  Vienna,  167 1).  Most  of  the 
sources  available  in  print  relating  to  trade  between  New  Spain  and 
the  Philippines  may  be  found  in  English  translation  in  the  55  volumes 
of  Robertson  and  Blair's  The  Philippine  IslandSy  I4gj-i8g8  (Cleve- 
land, 1903-09).  For  a  discussion  of  the  production  of  gold  and  silver 
in  the  New  World  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  see 

Duport,  St.  Clair.    De  la  production  des  mitaux  pricieux  au  Mexique. 
Paris,  1843.  ' 

Haring,  C.  H.    "American  gold  and  silver  production  in  the  first  half 
of  the  sixteenth  century."    In  Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics,  xxix 

(1915),  PP-  433-474. 

Humboldt,  Alex.  von.    Essai  politique  sur  le  royaume  de  la  Nouvelle 

Espagne.    2d  ed.    Paris,  1825-27.    4  vols. 

Lexis,  W.   **  Beitrage  zur  Statistik  der  Edelmetalle."   In  J ahrhiicher  fiir 

Nationalokonomie  und  Statistik,  xxxiv  (1879),  pp.  361-417. 

Restrepo,  Vicente.    Estudio  sobre  las  minas  de  oro  y  plata  de  Colombia. 

2d  ed.   Bogota,  1888. 

Soetbeer,  Adolf.     Edelmetall-produktion  und  Werthverkaltniss  zwischen 

Gold  und  Silher  seit  der  Entdeckung  Amerikas  bis  zur  Gegenwart.    Gotha, 

1879.     (Petermann's  Mitteilungen.) 

The  following  general  histories  of  certain  of  our  Latin  American 
Neighbors  deal  more  or  less  adequately  with  the  colonial  period,  and 
do  not  altogether  neglect  economic  matters: 

Baralt,  R.  M.    Resumen  de  la  historia  de  Venezuela  .  .  .  hasta  d  ano  de 

1797.    Paris,  1841. 

Barros  Arana,  D.    Historia  jeneral  de  Chile.     Santiago,  1 884-1 902. 

16  vols. 

Gonzalez  Suarez,  F.   Historia  general  de  la  repHblica  del  Ecuador.  Quito, 

1 890-1 903.    7  vols. 

Milla,  Jose,  and  Gomez  Carillo,  Agustin.    Historia  de  America  Central. 

Guatemala,  1879-97.    4  vols. 

Pezuela,  Jacobo  de  la.    Historia  de  la  isla  de  Cuba.    Madrid,  1868-78. 

4  vols. 


XXll  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

For  information  about  the  state  of  Spanish  nautical  science  in  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  recourse  may  be  had  to  such 
works  as  those  of  Martin  Fernandez  de  Navarrete,^  Picatoste  y  Rodri- 
guez,2  Puente  y  Olea  ^  and  Fernandez  Duro.'*  In  all  except  the  last, 
however,  indiscriminate  eulogy  is  too  often  allowed  to  usurp  the  place 
of  genuine  criticism.  The  documents  printed  by  Fernandez  Duro  in 
his  Disquisiciones  natlHcas  are  especially  illuminating.  The  writings 
of  Henry  Harrisse,  notably  The  Discovery  of  North  America  (London, 
1892)  and  John  Cdbot^  the  Discoverer  of  North  America^  and  Sebastian^ 
his  Son  (London,  1896),  contain  a  great  deal  of  information  on  this 
topic,  but  are  in  some  ways  disappointing.  A  careful  perusal  of  Har- 
risse's  works  leads  to  what  is  more  than  a  suspicion  that  he  had  little 
familiarity  with  the  Spanish  language.  Among  other  books  useful  for 
the  history  of  navigatictti  in  that  age  are: 

Albertis,  E.  A.  d'.    Le  costruzioni  navali  e  Varte  delta  navigazione  al 

tempo  de  Cristoforo  Colombo,    Rome,  1893.     {RaccoUa  Colomhiana,  pt. 

iv,  vol.  i.) 

Bensaude,  J.    Vastronomie  nauiique  au  Portugal  d  V^poque  des  grandes 

dScouvertes.    Berne,  191 2. 

Harrisse,  H.    Fernand  Colomh:  sa  vie,  ses  oeuvres.    Paris,  1872. 

Mayer,  E.    Die  HUfsmittel  der  Schijfahrtskunde  zur  Zeit  der  grossen 

Landerentdeckungen.    Vienna,  1879. 

Oppenheim,  M.  Naval  accounts  and  inventories  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VII, 

1485-88  and  I4g5-g7.   London,  1896.    (Navy  Records  Soc,  vol.  viii.) 

Oppenheim,  M.    The  naval  tracts  of  ,  .  ,  Sir  William  Monson.    Vols,  i- 

V.    London,  1902-14.    (Navy  Records  Soc,  vols,  xxii,  xxiii,  xliii,  xlv, 

xlvii.) 

Ravenstein,  E.  G.    Martin  Beheim.    London,  1908. 

For  a  treatment  of  early  forms  of  maritime  associations  and  partner- 
ships, one  must  turn  to 

Schmoller,  Gustav.    "Die  Handelsgesellshaften  des  Mittelalters  und 
derRenaissancezeit."    In  J ahrhuch  fur  Gesetzgehung  .  .  .  des  Deutschen 
Reiches,  2d  ser.,  xvii,  2,  pp.  1-33. 
Wagner,  R.    Handbuch  des  Seerechts.    2d  ed.    Leipsic,  1906. 

In  describing  the  history  and  organization  of  Spanish  colonial  trade, 
a  comparison  with  the  situation  in  the  contemporary  Portuguese 

^  Disertacidn  sobre  la  historia  de  la  naUHca  (Madrid,  1S46);  Bihlioteca  maritima 
espaiiola  (Madrid,  185 1),  2  vols. 

*  Apuntes  para  una  bihlioteca  cientifica  espanola  del  sigh  xvi  (Madrid,  1891). 

*  Los  trabajos  geogrdficos  de  la  Casa  de  la  Contratacidn  (Seville,  1900). 

*  La  Armada  Espanola  (Madrid,  1895-1903),  9  vols.;  Disquisiciones  naUticas 
(Madrid,  1876-81),  6  vols. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  xxiii 

empire  naturally  suggests  itself.  Unfortunately  there  is  no  work 
which  deals  in  any  adequate  fashion  with  this  important  subject. 
Zimmermann  ^  and  Lannoy  and  vander  Linden  are  extremely  cursory 
and  unsatisfactory.  Danvers^  and  Whiteway*  confine  themselves 
mainly  to  a  chronological  narrative  of  voyages,  conquests,  and  polit- 
ical administration.  Some  idea  of  the  beginnings  of  the  Portuguese 
East  India  trade  may  be  gleaned  from  the  opening  chapters  of  Haeb- 
ler's  Die  uberseeischen  Unternehmungen  der  Welser  und  ihrer  GeselU 
schafter  (Leipsic,  1903).  But  the  field  of  Portuguese  colonial  history, 
even  more  than  that  of  Spain,  still  awaits  the  conscientious  modem 
investigator. 

An  adequate  account  of  the  course  of  Spain's  economic  decline  in 
the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  has  yet  to  make  its  appear- 
ance. Gounon-Loubens,*  writing  over  fifty  years  ago,  although  still 
very  good,  approaches  the  subject  from  the  administrative  point  of 
view.  Haebler  ^  must  be  used  cautiously,  and  corrected  by  reference 
to  the  article  of  Bernays.^  Something  may  be  gleaned  from  Ranke  ' 
and  from  Colmeiro;  ^  Weiss  ^  tries  to  cover  the  ground  systematically, 
but  is  rather  antiquated.  Of  writers  contemporary  with  the  Haps- 
burgs,  Pedro  Fernandez  Navarre te,^°  Martinez  de  la  Mata^*  and  Alva- 
rez Osorio  y  Redin,^^  Spanish  publicists  of  the  time  of  Philip  III,  Philip 
IV,  and  Charles  II,  reflect  in  their  works  the  progressive  moral  and 
economic  ruin  of  the  Spanish  state.  The  elaborate  and  scholarly 
monograph  of  Georges  Scelle  on  the  Assiento,  referred  to  above,  be- 
comes but  a  running  commentary  on  this  same  theme. 

In  spite  of  the  volume  of  gold  and  silver  from  the  American  mines, 
the  Hapsburgs  could  not  have  played  the  political  role  to  which  they 
aspired  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  without  the  assist- 

1  Op.  cit.  2  The  Portuguese  in  India  (London,  1894),  2  vols. 

'  The  rise  of  Portuguese  Power  in  India,  1497-1550  (Westminster,  1899). 

*  Essais  sur  I* administration  de  la  Castille  au  ocvi"  siecle  (Paris,  i860). 

^  Die  wirtschaftliche  Bliite  Spaniens  im  16.  Jahrhundert  (Berlin,  1888). 

*  "  Zur  inneren  Entwicklung  Castiliens  unter  Kari  V,"  in  Deutsche  Zeitschrift  fiir 
Geschichtswissenschaft,  i  (1889),  pp.  381-428. 

'  Die  Osmanen  und  die  Spanische  Monarchic  (3d  ed.,  Berlin,  1857). 

*  Eistoria  de  la  economia  polUica  en  Espana  (Madrid,  1863),  2  vols. 

*  L'Espagne  depuis  Philippe  II  jusqu'aux  Bourbons  (Paris,  1844),  2  vols. 
*°  Conservacidn  de  monarquias,  etc.    Madrid,  1626. 

"  Los ocho discursos  (1656).  In^ pSndice  d  la  Educacidn  popular,  edited  by  Pedro 
Rodriguez  de  Campomanes  (Madrid,  1775-77),  4  vols. 

^  Extensidn  politica  y  econdmica.  In  Ap^ndice,  etc.,  of  Pedro  Rodriguez  de 
Campomanes. 


XXIV  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

ance  of  foreign  capitalists.  The  ubiquitous  Italian  or  German  banker 
was  constantly  resorted  to  for  long  or  short  time  loans  at  usurious 
interest,  and  generally  recouped  himself  from  the  treasure  on  the  India 
fleets,  with  assignments  of  royal  revenues,  with  monopolies  of  mines, 
or  with  trading  or  banking  privileges.  The  activities  of  the  great 
German  commercial  and  banking  houses  of  that  age  have  come  in  for 
their  due  share  of  attention  at  the  hands  of  modern  scholars.  They 
may  be  studied  to  advantage  in  the  following  works: 

Daenell,  Ernst.  " Zu den  deutschenHandelsunternehmungen  in Amerika 

im i6.  Jahrhundert."  InHist.  Vierteljahrschrift,  xiii  (1910),  pp.  183-191. 

Ehrenberg,  Richard.    Das  Zeitdter  der  Fugger.    Geldkapital  und  Credit- 

verkehr  im  16.  Jahrhundert.    Jena,  1896.    2  vols. 

Haebler,  Konrad.   Die  Geschichte  der  Fugger^schen  Handlung  in  Spanien. 

Wiemar,  1897. 

Haebler,  Konrad.     Die  Uberseeischen  Unternehmungen  der  Welser  und 

ihrer  Gesellschafter.    Leipsic,  1903. 

Jansen,  Max.    Jakob  Fugger  der  Reiche.    Studien  und  Quellen,  i,  Leipsic, 

1910. 

Other  works  consulted  in  the  preparation  of  this  treatise  were  the 
following: 

Alberti,  L.  de,  and  Chapman,  A.  B.  W.  English  Merchants  and  the  Span- 
ish Inquisition  in  the  Canaries,  London,  191 2.  (Camden  See.  Public, 
2d  ser.,  vol.  xxiii.) 

Arantegui  y  Sanz,  Jos6.    Apuntes  histdricas  sobre  la  artilleria  espanola  en 
la  primer  a  mitad  del  sigh  xvi.    Madrid,  1891. 
Beazley,  C.  R.    John  and  Sebastian  Cabot.    London,  1898. 
Beazley,  C.  R.    Prince  Henry  the  Navigator.    New  York,  1895. 
Beer,  Adolf.    Allgemeine  Geschichte  des  Welthandels.   Vienna,  1860-84. 
5  vols. 

Blok,  P.  J.    History  of  the  People  of  the  Netherlands.    Tr.  by  C.  A.  Bier- 
stadt  and  R.  Putnam.    New  York,  1898-1912.    5  vols. 
Bodin,  Jean.  Discours  sur  les  causes  de  V extreme  cherth  qui  est  aujourd^huy 
en  France.  1574.    (Archives  curieuses  de  I'histoire  de  France.    Paris, 

1835.) 

Bonn,  M.  J.  Spaniens  Niedergang  wdhrend  der  Preisrevolution  des  16. 
Jahrhundert.  Stuttgart,  1896.  (Miinchener  volkswirtschaftliche  Stu- 
dien, no.  12.) 

Cartas  de  Indias.  Publicalas  elMinisterio  de  Fomento.  Madrid,  1877. 
Champlain,  Samuel  de.  Narrative  of  a  Voyage  to  the  West  Indies  and 
Mexico  in  the  years  ijQQ-1602.  Tr.  by  Alice  Wilmere.  London,  1857. 
(Hakluyt  Soc.  Public,  ist  ser.,  no.  23.) 

Corbett,  J.  S.    Drake  and  the  Tudor  Navy.  London,  1898*    2  vols. 
Corbett,  J.  S.,  ed.  Fighting  Instructions,  1330-1816.   London,  1905. 
(Navy  Records  Soc.  Public,  vol.  xxbc.) 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  XXV 

Corbett,  J.  S.,  ed.  Papers  relating  to  the  Navy  during  the  Spanish  Wart 
1 58 5-1 587.    London,  1898.    (Navy  Records  Soc.  Public,  vol.  xi.) 
Corbett,  J.  S.    The  Successors  of  Drake.    London,  1900. 
Cortes,  Hernando.    Letters  to  the  Emperor  Charles  V.     Tr.  and  ed.  by 
F.  A.  MacNutt.    New  York,  1908.     2  vols. 

Cortes  de  los  antiguos  reinos  de  Leon  y  de  Castilla  {1020-1550).  Madrid, 
1861-1903.    5  vols. 

Cuevas,  M. ,  ed.  Cartas  y  otros  documentos  de  Hernan  Cortes.  Seville,  191 5. 
Cuevas,  M.,  ed.  Documentos  iniditos  del  sigh  xvi  para  la  historia  de 
Mexico.    Mexico,  1914. 

Daenell,  E.  Die  Spanier  in  Nordamerika  von  1513  his  1824.  Munich, 
1911. 

Diaz  del  Castillo,  Bernal.  Historia  verdadera  de  la  conquista  de  la  Nueva 
Espana.    Madrid,  1632. 

Dumont,  Jean,  ed.  Corps  universel  diplomatique.  Hague,  1726-39.  13 
vols. 

Elhuyer,  F.  de.  Indagaciones  sobre  la  amonedacidn  en  Nueva  Espana. 
Madrid,  1818. 

Enriquez  de  Guzman,  Alonso.  Life  and  Atts,  1518-1543.  Tr.  by  C.  R. 
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el  comercio  .  .  .  de  las  Islas  Philipinas.  Madrid,  1736. 
Fernandez  de  Navarrete,  M.  de.  Coleccidn  de  opHsculos.  Madrid,  1848. 
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2  vols. 

Gallardo  Fernandez,  F.  Origen,  progresos  y  estado  de  las  rentas  de  la 
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Gelpi  y  Ferro,  G.  Estudios  sobre  la  America.  Havana,  1864-70. 
2  vols. 

Goldschmidt ,  L.    Universalgeschichte  des  Handelsrechts.   Stuttgart ,  1 89 1 . 
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Hakluyt,  R.    The  principal  Navigations  . .  »of  the  English  Nation.    Ed. 
for  the  Hakluyt  Soc.    Glasgow,  1904.    12  vols. 

Haring,  C.  H.  The  Buccaneers  in  the  West  Indies  in  the  Seventeenth  Cen- 
tury.   London,  19 10. 

Harrisse,  H.  Christophe  Colomb :  son  origine,  sa  vie,  ses  voyages. 
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Humboldt,  A.  von.  The  Fluctuations  of  Gold.  Tr.  by  W.  Maude.  New 
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Laiglesia,  F.  de.  Los  caudales  de  Indias  en  la  primera  mitad  del  siglo 
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Lea,  H.  C.  The  Inquisition  in  the  Spanish  Dependencies.  New  York, 
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Lowery,  Woodbury.  The  Spanish  Settlements  within  the  present  Limits 
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Marcel,  Gabriel.    Les  corsaires  frangais  au  xvi  stkile  dans  les  Antilles. 

Paris,  1902. 

Markham,  Sir  C.  R.    Life  of  Christopher  Columbus.    London,  1902. 

Markham,  Sir  C.  R.    Reports  on  the  Discovery  0}  Peru.    London,  1872. 

(Hakluyt  Soc.  Public,  ist  ser.,  no.  47.) 

Marsden,  R.  G.,  ed.    Select  Pleas  in  the  Court  of  Admiralty.    London, 

1894-97.    2  vols.     (Selden  Soc.  Public,  vols,  vi,  xi.) 

Martinez  de  Zuniga,  J.    Estadismo  de  las  Islas  FUipinas.     Ed.  by 

W.  E.  Retana.    Madrid,  1893.    2  vols. 

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2  vols. 

Merivale,  H.    Lectures  on  Colonization  and  Colonies.    New  ed.    Lon- 
don, 1 86 1. 
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3  vols. 

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Nunez  de  Castro,  A.  Solo  Madrid  es  Corte,  y  el  cortesano  en  Madrid. 
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Sapper,  K.    Wirtschaftsgeographie  von  Mexico.    Halle  a.  S.,  1908. 
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ABBREVIATIONS 


A.  de  I. 

A.  de  I.,  Patr. 
Antuiiez  y  Acevedo. 

B.  M. 

Bibl.  Nat. 

Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser. 


Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser. 

Colecc.  de  Espafia. 
Encinas. 
Exiensidn  polUica. 

Herrera. 

N.M.C. 

Ord.  of  the  Casa. 
Recop. 

Veitia  Linaje. 
Viajes. 


Archive  de  Indias  (Seville). 

Archive  de  Indias,  section  Patronato  Real. 

Antunez  y  Acevedo,  Rafael.    Memorias  histdricas 

sohre  la  legislacidn  y  gohierno  del  comercio  en  las 

Indias  Occidentales.    Madrid,  1797. 

British  Museum. 

Bibliotheque  Nationale  (Paris). 

Coleccidn  de  documenios  ineditos  relativos  al  descU' 

hrimiento,  conquista,  y  colonizacion  de  las  posesiones 

espanolas  en  America  y  Oceania.    Madrid,  1864- 

84.    42  vols. 

Coleccidn  de  documentos  inSditos  relativos  al  descu- 

brimiento,  conquista,  y  organizacidn  de  las  antiguas 

posesiones  espanolas  de  ultramar.    Madrid,  1885- 

1900.     13  vols. 

Coleccidn  de  documentos  iniditos  para  la  historia  de 

Espafia.    Madrid,  1842-95.     112  vols. 

Encinas,  Diego  de.    Provisiones,  cSdulas,  capitulos 

de  ordenanqas,  etc.    Madrid,  1596.    4  vols. 

Alvarez  Osorio  y  Redin,  Miguel.    Extensidn  poli- 

Uca  y  economica.    Printed  in  ApSndice  d  la  Educa- 

cion  popular,  ed.  by  Pedro  Rodriguez  de  Campo- 

manes  (Madrid,  1775-77).    4  vols. 

Herrera  y  Tordesillas,  Antonio  de.  Historia  general 

de  los  hechos  de  los  Castellanos  en  las  islas  i  tierra 

firme  del  mar  oceano.    Madrid,  1 601-15.    4  vols. 

Manuscript  collection  of  Martin  Fernandez  de 

Navarrete  (Hydrographic  Office,  Madrid). 

Ordenenzas  reales  para  la  Casa  de  la  Contratacidn  de 

las  Indias.    Seville,  1552,  Madrid,  1585,  etc. 

Recopilacidn  de  leyes  de  los  reynos  de  las  Indias, 

mandadas  imprimir  y  puhlicar  por  rey  Carlos  II, 

Madrid,  1681.    4  vols. 

Veitia  Linaje,  Joseph  de.    Norte  de  la  Contratacidn 

de  las  Indias  Occidentales.    Seville,  1672. 

Fernandez  de  Navarrete,  Martin.    Coleccidn  de  los 

viajes  y  descubrimientos  que  hicieron  por  mar  los 

Espanoles  desde  fines  del  siglo  xv.    Madrid,  1825- 

37.    5  vols. 


PART  I 
TRADE 


TRADE   AND   NAVIGATION 

BETWEEN  SPAIN  AND  THE 

INDIES 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  SEVILLE  MONOPOLY 

"Divine  Providence  having  permitted,  in  the  year  1492,  the 
beginning  of  the  discovery  of  the  Western  Indies,  by  Christopher 
Columbus  ...  in  the  name  and  at  the  expense  of  the  Catholic 
kings  of  Leon  and  Castile,  Don  Ferdinand  and  Dona  Isabel,  .  .  . 
the  affairs  relating  to  the  provinces  and  islands  so  discovered  were 
governed  by  various  commissions  entrusted  by  the  Catholic  kings 
to  particular  individuals,  especially  for  many  years  to  D.  Juan 
Rodriguez  de  Fonseca,  dean  of  the  Holy  Church  of  Seville,  after- 
wards bishop  of  .  .  .  Burgos  .  .  .  until  Queen  Joanna,  by  her 
cedula  issued  at  Alcala  de  Henares  on  the  14th  of  February  of 
1503,''  established  in  Seville  the  Casa  de  Contra tacion.^ 

Such  was  the  epitome  in  1672,  by  the  royal  coimcillor,  Veitia 
Linaje,  of  the  governance  of  Spain's  trade  with  the  New  World 
before  1 503.  Veitia  Linaje  in  composing  his  elaborate  and  learned 
work.  The  Pole-star  of  American  Trade ^  the  sole  treatise  on  the 
subject  before  the  eighteenth  century,  began  his  discussion  with 
the  creation  of  the  celebrated  India  House.  But  the  first  decade 
after  the  voyage  of  Columbus  cannot  be  disposed  of  so  sum- 
marily as  this  would  imply,  nor  does  the  foundation  of  the 
Casa  de  Contratacion  mark  the  inauguration  of  mercantile  rela- 
tions with  the  newly  discovered  hemisphere.  It  is  true  that  Amer- 
ican trade  was  then  first  put  upon  a  definitely  organized  basis. 
But  even  before  1503,  export  to  the  Western  Ladies,  the  name 
by  which  America  was  always  officially  designated  in  Spain, 
was  permitted  to  private  individuals,  rules  were  promulgated  for 

'  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  i,  par.  i. 

It  was  really  Isabella  who  issued  this  c6dula,  as  her  death  did  not  occur  till  the 
following  year,  1504. 

3 


4  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

the  regulation  of  commerce,  and  a  customhouse  set  up  on  Ameri- 
can shores. 

As  the  first  voyage  of  Columbus  was  mostly  at  the  expense  of 
the  Castilian  queen,  all  potential  profits  were  expressly  reserved 
to  the  Crown,  save  one  tenth  of  the  net  proceeds  which  went  to 
the  discoverer.  Columbus,  however,  was  allowed  in  addition  to 
contribute  one  eighth  of  the  cost  of  the  cargo,  and  receive  one 
eighth  of  the  returns  of  the  venture.*  A  similiar  provision  was 
made  for  the  second  voyage  in  1493.  ^  ^le  instructions  issued  by 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella  to  the  admiral  in  May  of  that  year,  pri- 
vate individuals  of  any  degree  or  condition  were  expressly  pro- 
hibited from  carrying  merchandise  on  that  or  any  other  fleet  for 
purposes  of  trade.  All  persons  and  goods  accompanying  the  expe- 
dition had  to  be  registered  before  an  agent  of  the  royal  ex- 
chequer; and  on  arrival  in  the  Indies  be  presented  a  second 
time  for  comparison  with  the  original  register.  Anything  found 
over  and  above  what  was  declared  in  Castile  was  confiscated  to 
the  Crown.  It  was  also  provided  that  a  customhouse  (casa  de 
aduana)  be  immediately  erected  for  the  receipt  of  the  royal  mer- 
chandise, and  that  every  commercial  transaction  take  place  before 
the  treasurer,  comptroller  and  a  representative  of  the  admiral,  or 
deputies,  and  be  entered  in  a  book  set  apart  for  such  business.^ 

Thus  in  the  very  first  regulations  laid  down  for  the  guidance  of 
Columbus  and  his  companions,  we  fijid  the  germs  of  the  most 
characteristic  features  of  the  Spanish  commercial  system  as  it 
evolved  in  the  succeeding  century.  There  is  the  control  exercised 
by  a  treasurer,  comptroller,  and  royal  factor,  and  there  is  the 
minute  provision  for  the  registration  of  every  sailor,  ojB&cer  and 
passenger,  every  piece  of  ordnance,  every  package  of  muni- 
tions, merchandise  or  provisions,  carried  to  and  from  the  New 
World. 

The  royal  monopoly,  however,  was  of  short  duration.  Within 
two  years  trans- Atlantic  trade  was  thrown  open  to  all  of  Isabella's 
subjects.  Spaniards  were  clamoring  for  permission  to  cross  the 
seas,  some  to  emulate  the  achievements  of  the  great  discoverer 
and  find  gold  and  new  lands  to  conquer,  others  to  settle  in  the 
*  Viajes,  ii,  p.  7,  '  Ihid.,  p.  66. 


THE  SEVILLE  MONOPOLY  $ 

colony  already  established  on  the  island  of  Hispaniola.  In  re- 
sponse to  these  desires  an  ordinance,  issued  on  April  lo,  1495, 
extended  to  all  Castilian  subjects  liberty  to  go  to  America  for 
settlement,  exploration  or  trade,  under  conditions  prescribed.^ 
Ships  must  register  at,  and  sail  from,  the  port  of  Cadiz,  and  return 
thither  on  the  homeward  voyage.  A  tenth  part  of  the  tonnage  was 
reserved  for  the  use  of  the  Crown  without  payment  of  freight, 
whether  the  vessel  was  bent  upon  trade  or  exploration,  and  one 
tenth  of  everything  secured  by  barter  or  other  means  was  likewise 
a  perquisite  of  the  king,^  except  gold  obtained  on  Hispaniola. 
Mines,  by  the  ancient  law  of  Spain,  were  crown  property,  and 
only  one  third  of  their  produce  was  by  royal  grace  awarded  to  the 
miner. 

Eight  years,  therefore,  before  the  foundation  of  the  Casa  de 
Contratacion,  trade  and  navigation  between  Spain  and  America 
were  freer  than  they  were  destined  to  be  during  the  next  three 
centuries;  for  very  soon  regulations  and  restrictions  upon  ships, 
passengers  and  cargoes  were  to  increase  at  an  extraordinary  rate. 
As  early  as  1501,  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  sent  a  letter  throughout 
Spain,  reversing  their  policy,  and  strictly  enjoining  any  one  from 
going  to  the  Indies,  either  to  the  settlements  or  for  discovery  and 
exploration,  without  royal  license.*  And  even  before  this  date  the 
voyages  of  Ojeda,  Niiio,  Lepe  and  Pinzon  were  made  only  on 
the  basis  of  special  capitulations  with  the  Crown.  Moreover,  such 
was  the  eagerness  of  Spanish  mariners,  that  the  government  soon 
foimd  it  could  make  better  terms  than  those  provided  in  the 
liberal  decree  of  1495.  ^  ^^  agreements  with  these  companions 

1  Viajes,  ii,  p.  165. 

2  Apparently  in  the  trade  carried  on  earlier  with  northwest  Africa  and  the  coast 
of  Guinea,  the  Crown  reserved  to  itself  double  the  above  proportion,  or  one  fifth  of 
the  cargoes  brought  to  Spain.    Ihid.,  iii,  p.  465- 

3  Ibid.,  ii,  p.  257. 

Bourne  intimates  {Spain  in  America,  pp.  45,  46)  that  the  concessions  of  1495 
were  soon  revoked  at  the  instance  of  Columbus,  because  they  clashed  with  his  privi- 
leges. He  is  evidently  referring  to  the  royal  order  of  June  2, 1497  (Viajes,  ii,  p.  201). 
The  Crown,  however,  declares  merely  that  these  concessions  shall  not  be  understood 
as  prejudicing  rights  previously  accorded  to  the  admiral.  And  none  of  the  rights 
assured  him  in  1492  could  be  construed  to  interfere  with  freedom  of  trade  and  navi- 
gation. Other  documents  of  the  same  year,  1497,  used  by  Bourne,  make  it  clear 
that  as  yet  no  specific  restrictions  were  contemplated. 


6  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

and  pupils  of  Columbus,  the  Crown  was  guaranteed  from  a  half  to 
a  fourth  or  a  fifth  of  the  profits  of  their  voyages. ' 

In  the  very  beginning,  the  American  navigation  was  exempt  in 
the  peninsula  from  the  payment  of  tolls,  taxes  or  dues  of  any  sort. ^ 
This  would  obviously  be  so  for  the  earliest  expeditions,  which  were 
equipped  at  the  royal  charge.  It  was  also  true  after  1495,  when 
the  Indies  were  thrown  open  to  all  properly  accredited  Spaniards. 
Royal  decrees  in  the  spring  of  1497  excused  all  goods  imported 
from  the  West  from  the  payment  of  almojarifazgo,  portazgo, 
almirantazgo  or  any  other  duties,  and  also  from  the  payment  of 
the  alcabala  on  the  first  sale  in  Spain.  Merchandise  shipped  to  the 
Indies  "  for  their  maintenance  and  support ''  was  similarly 
exempt  at  the  port  of  embarkation.^  In  all  these  early  decrees  the 
rule  was  made  contingent  on  the  pleasure  of  the  sovereign.  It  was 
reiterated  in  1 501  in  connection  with  the  expedition  which  Nicolas 
de  Ovando  was  preparing,  to  go  and  assume  the  governorship  of 
Hispaniola.*  In  1 504  it  was  extended  for  a  specified  period  of  ten 
years,  and  was  reissued  in  151 9  by  Charles  V.^  Not  till  1543  were 
any  customs  dues  levied  in  Spain  on  American  trade.  This  exemp- 
tion, however,  did  not  apply  to  ports  in  the  colonies.  It  seems 
that  from  the  first,  goods  brought  to  Hispaniola  paid  a  duty  of 
7 1  per  cent,  equal  to  the  combined  import  and  export  rates 
customary  in  Andalusia.  Instructions  of  March  20, 1 503  to  Gov- 
ernor Ovando  expressly  empowered  him  to  tax  such  merchandise, 
and  the  decree  of  1504  exempting  American  trade  at  Seville 
clearly  stated  that  goods  on  reaching  the  Indies  should  pay 
almojarifazgo  at  the  ordinary  Sevillan  rates.® 

*  ViajeSy  ii,  pp.  244,  247;  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser,,  xxxi,  pp.  i,  187. 

2  Viajes,  ii,  pp.  16,  39;  iii,  p.  493;  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xix,  pp.  461,  507; 
xxxviii,  pp.  no,  135,  294. 

3  Viajes,  ii,  pp.  190,  196;  Colecc  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xxxvi,  p.  146;  xxxviii,  p.  380. 

*  Colecc  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xxxi,  p.  61. 
^  Ihid.,  p.  233;  2d  ser.,  ix,  p.  98. 

^  Bourne  says  {op.  ciL,  p.  18)  that  Columbus,  in  the  original  compact  with  the 
Spanish  sovereigns  in  1492,  was  granted  a  royalty  of  ten  per  cent  of  the  net  proceeds 
of  all  trade  with  the  regions  discovered.  This  is  a  bit  misleading.  As  the  wording 
of  the  Capitulation  indicates,  a  tenth  of  the  profits  of  the  Crown  alone  was  contem- 
plated. And  this  interpretation  is  borne  out  by  later  documents  of  1497,  1501, 
and  1508  (Viajes,  ii,  pp.  202,  275,  325).     On  the  strength  of  this  agreement, 


THE  SEVILLE  MONOPOLY  7 

Columbus'  momentous  voyage,  with  its  three  small  boats  and 
ninety  men,  was  imdertaken  from  Palos,  a  tiny  seaport  directly 
west  of  Seville  at  the  mouth  of  the  Rio  Tinto.  His  second  fleet 
sailed  in  September,  1493,  ^^^m  the  larger  port  of  Cadiz;  and 
Cadiz  remained  for  a  decade  the  usual  place  of  departure  for 
expeditions  sent  to  America.  A  special  customhouse  was  estab- 
lished there,  in  charge  of  Juan  de  Soria,  secretary  to  the  king's  son 
and  deputy  of  the  exchequer,  where  was  registered  all  merchandise 
passing  to  and  from  the  New  World.  The  large  fleet  of  Ovando, 
however,  in  1502,  sailed  from  San  Lucar  de  Barrameda,  a  town 
below  Seville  at  the  mouth  of  the  Guadalquivir. 

As  the  islands  and  mainland  revealed  by  the  explorers  became 
more  extensive,  the  Crown  determined  to  create  a  "casa  de  con- 
tra tacion,"  or  House  of  Trade,  for  the  regulation  and  encourage- 
ment of  commerce  with  these  new  regions.  And  Seville  was 
chosen  as  its  residence,  not  because  of  superior  maritime  facilities, 
for  Cadiz  had  much  the  better  harbor,  but  probably  because 
Seville  happened  to  be  the  wealthiest  and  most  populous  city  of 

Columbus  and  his  son,  Diego,  enjoyed  a  tenth  of  all  royal  revenues  in  the  West 
Indian  islands. 

It  is  possible,  however,  that  the  discoverer  and  his  successors  levied  an  admiralty 
duty  in  American  ports  by  virtue  of  their  office  as  admirals  of  the  Indies.  In  the 
first  agreement,  Columbus  received,  for  himself  and  his  heirs  and  successors  forever, 
the  title  of  admiral  of  all  the  islands  and  mainland  discovered  by  him,  with  all  the 
"  preeminences  and  prerogatives  "  exercised  by  the  admirals  of  Castile.  The  latter 
exacted  at  Seville  and  Cadiz,  from  skippers  who  were  not  natives  of  Andalusia,  a 
payment  for  the  right  of  lading  and  unlading  (ahnirantazgo),  as  well  as  anchorage 
dues.  These  admiralty  duties  were  never  paid  by  vessels  engaged  in  the  India 
trade,  and  whether  the  Columbus  family  collected  them  in  America  is  doubtful. 
At  least  I  have  found  no  mention  of  them.  Veitia  Linaje  says  that  they  were  levied 
(Ub.  ii,  cap.  22,  par.  2);  but  he  is  probably  arguing  from  the  later  cedula  of 
revocation. 

The  concessions  of  1492  were  confirmed  in  1497,  and  again  in  1536.  In  1547 
D.  Luis  Columbus,  grandson  of  the  discoverer,  renounced  forever  all  but  the  mere 
title  of  admiral,  and  received  in  recompense  an  annuity  of  7000  ducats  on  the 
revenues  of  the  Indies.  Viajes,  ii,  pp.  7,  191;  Antunez  y  Acevedo,  pp.  259  f.; 
Recop.,  lib.  ix,  tit.  43,  leyes  i,  12,  13. 

In  1518  the  admiral  of  Castile  was  granted  a  pension  of  400,000  maravedis,  paid 
out  of  the  funds  of  the  Casa  de  Contrataci6n,  270,000  by  way  of  merced,  and  130,000 
as  equivalent  to  the  tax  he  declared  was  due  him  from  ships  sailing  to  America. 
But  this  ceased  with  the  death  of  the  then  admiral,  D.  Fernando  Enriquez,  in 
1543- 


8  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

Castile,  of  which  the  Indies  were  considered  to  be  the  exclusive 
possession.  The  city  was  favorably  situated,  moreover,  as  an 
interior  port,  nearest  to  the  central  regions  of  the  kingdom. 
Foreign  merchants,  especially  Genoese,  had  enjoyed  privileges 
there  since  the  time  of  St.  Ferdinand,  and  the  traiSc  and  move- 
ment incidental  to  the  war  of  Granada  had  increased  its  pros- 
perity and  importance.^  As  all  trade  with  the  New  World  was  to 
pass  through  the  Casa,  the  control  of  this  commerce  was  from  the 
outset  restricted  to  a  single  port  for  the  whole  of  Spain.  And  for 
two  centuries,  in  spite  of  the  claims  of  other  cities,  in  spite  of 
protests  from  the  colonies,  and  the  well-intentioned  efforts  of  Fer- 
dinand's grandson  the  emperor,  Seville  retained  her  high  distinc- 
tion. The  vested  interests  of  the  merchants  whose  prosperity 
depended  upon  the  preservation  of  this  monopoly  were  sufficient 
to  bear  down  all  opposition ;  and  for  the  Crown  it  was  much  easier 
to  maintain  in  a  single  port  that  rigid  supervision  of  every  detail 
of  trade  and  navigation  which  was  the  Spaniard's  ideal. 

At  first  ships  might  receive  their  cargoes  elsewhere,  but  be- 
fore crossing  the  Atlantic  were  required  to  ascend  the  Gua- 
dalquivir and  register  with  the  officials  of  the  Casa.  But  it  was 
soon  found  impossible  to  compel  all  vessels  to  submit  to  this 
formality.  Mariners  were  not  long  in  complaining  that  the  city 
lay  twenty  leagues  from  the  sea,  that  the  bar  at  San  Lucar  was 
dangerous  to  cross,  and  the  channel  narrow  and  tortuous.  More- 
over ships  increased  in  size,  so  that  where  formerly  they  were 
scarcely  of  a  hundred  tons  burden,  within  a  generation  there  were 
many  of  over  two  hundred.  The  larger  vessels,  even  in  the  first 
half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  before  the  river  had  silted  up  to  the 
extent  it  did  later,  were  unable  to  ascend  it  without  imloading  half 
of  the  cargo  eight  leagues  below  the  city.  Sometimes  captains 
were  delayed  a  month  or  more,  sufficient  time  to  make  the  entire 
Atlantic  voyage.  As  the  traffic  grew  heavier  this  became  a  serious 
disability. 

The  colonists,  too,  in  the  beginning  often  complained  of  the 
impediments  to  trade  presented  by  the  Seville  monopoly.  In  1508 

^  Viajes,  i,  introduction;  Piemas  y  Hurtado,  La  Casa  de  la  Contratacidn  de  las 
Indias  (Madrid,  1907). 


THE  SEVILLE  MONOPOLY  9 

the  settlers  on  Hispaniola  petitioned  that  natives  of  Castile  and 
Aragon  naight  ship  commodities  from  any  port  of  the  peninsula 
directly  to  America.  The  request  was  repeated  by  the  Hierony- 
mite  governors  of  the  Indies  in  15 17,  and  by  the  municipality  of 
San  Domingo  ten  years  later.  In  1540  the  royal  audiencia  in 
Hispaniola  protested  to  the  emperor  that  the  island  was  under- 
stocked with  wine,  flour  and  other  necessities,  and  the  freights 
excessive,  because  of  the  scant  supply  of  ships  from  Seville. 

If  the  approach  to  Seville  was  dangerous  and  uncertain,  Cadiz, 
situated  on  a  deep,  commodious  bay  and  close  to  the  metropolis, 
was  the  obvious  alternative.  In  1508,  in  response  to  the  colonists' 
address,  vessels  were  given  permission  to  load  and  register  there 
and  at  San  Lucar,  under  the  eye  of  an  inspector  or  "  visitador  "; 
and  a  few  months  later  Pedro  de  Aguila  was  appointed  by  the 
Crown  to  that  post.^  Ships  on  the  homeward  voyage,  however,  or 
at  least  those  which  carried  treasure,  must  still  return  to  Seville. 
Though  Aguila  was  theoretically  subordinate  to  the  officials  at 
Seville,  his  appointment  was  bound  to  cause  friction,  if  only  be- 
cause of  the  intense  jealousy  of  the  two  cities.  So  ten  years  later, 
in  1 5 19,  Charles  V,  recognizing  the  inconvenience  of  such  a  di- 
vision of  authority,  ordered  that  thereafter  the  visitador  be 
appointed  directly  by  the  officers  of  the  Casa.^ 

This  step  did  not  improve  matters,  for  the  Casa,  havin<^  now 
full  control  of  the  situation  in  Cadiz,  often  neglected  to  appoint 
any  one  at  all,  thus  forcing  vessels  to  call  at  Seville.  The  emperor 
consequently  in  1530  transferred  the  nomination  of  the  visi- 
tador to  the  lately  organized  Council  of  the  Indies;  and  this 
body  in  the  following  year  decided  that  the  three  officials  of  the 
Casa  themselves  each  reside  in  Cadiz  four  months  of  the  year, 
aided  by  two  deputies  representing  the  colleagues  who  remained 
at  home.'  But  experience  soon  showed  that  these  periodical 
absences  brought  confusion  into  the  Casa's  affairs,  and  it  was 
finally  agreed  in  1535  to  appoint  a  permanent  resident  at  Cadiz, 
to  act  in  conjunction  with  deputies  of  the  three  Sevillan  officials. 
Later  in  the  same  year,  Pedro  Ortiz  de  Matienzo  was  nominated 

1  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  25,  par.  i;  A.  de  I.,  139.  i.  4,  lib.  2,  fol.  30. 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  25,  par.  i. 

•  Ibid.,  par.  2;  A.  de  I.,  Patr.  2.  5.  1/6,  ramo  28. 


lO  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

by  royal  letters  '^  juez  oficial  "  of  that  port.^  Matienzo,  in  spite  of 
his  title,  was  given  no  judicial  powers  such  as  were  exercised  by 
the  Casa;2  but  on  the  other  hand,  ships  from  America  might 
thereafter  unload  at  Cadiz,  even  if  they  carried  gold  and  silver, 
provided  that  the  cargoes  and  registers  were  transported  intact 
to  Seville. 

So  was  established  the  "  Juzgado  de  Indias ''  of  Cadiz,  the 
source  throughout  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  of  con- 
stant disputes  and  irritation.  The  Casa  de  Contratacion  tried  to 
confine  the  exports  from  Cadiz  to  local  products,  such  as  wine 
and  wax,  and  later  when  trade  was  restricted  to  annual  fleets,  to 
keep  the  proportionate  tonnage  assigned  to  the  city  as  small  as 
possible.  In  quiet  opposition  was  the  Cadiz  resident,  subject  to 
the  Casa's  authority,  but  always  alert  to  extend  his  own  juris- 
diction and  influence,  and  allied  with  the  inhabitants  in  im- 
portuning the  Crown  for  greater  privileges.  The  merchants  of 
Seville  contended  that  the  harbor  of  Cadiz,  being  open  to  the  sea, 
afforded  no  shelter  from  gales  and  pirates.  Drake  without  the 
least  difficulty  destroyed  all  the  shipping  in  the  port  in  1587,  and 
his  exploit  was  emulated  by  other  Englishmen  in  1596  and  1625.^ 
The  protagonists  for  Cadiz  replied  that  the  4evante'  there  was 
never  so  dangerous  as  the  current  at  San  Lucar  when  the  river  was 
at  flood;  and  that  vessels  at  Cadiz  might  retire  behind  the  forts 
for  protection  from  corsairs,  while  the  latter  in  pinnaces  could 
easily  enter  San  Lucar.  At  the  mouth  of  the  Guadalquivir  the 
largest  ships  became  entangled  with  one  another,  often  lost  cables 
and  anchors,  and  drifted  on  to  the  rocks.  The  sand  bar  was  an 
added  danger,  captains  sometimes  waiting  weeks  for  a  proper 
conjunction  of  tides,  winds  and  daylight,  finally  in  despair 
taking  a  chance  and  often  losing  their  vessels.^  All  of  which  is 
perhaps  also  a  commentary  on  Spanish  seamanship. 

*  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  x,  pp.  287,  303;  Recop.,  lib.  ix,  tit.  4,  leyes  i,  4. 

*  Minor  judicial  functions  were  later  attached  to  the  office.   Recop.,  lib.  ix,  tit.  4, 

leys- 

'  In  1596  the  English  took  prisoner  the  president  of  the  Casa  de  Contrataci6n, 
Dr.  Pedro  Gutierrez  Flores,  and  the  Cadiz  resident,  D.  Pedro  de  Castillo,  and  held 
them  for  ransom.    Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  25,  par.  20. 

*  B.  M.,  Add.  mss.  13,  975,  fol.  182. 


THE  SEVILLE  MONOPOLY  1 1 

The  Juzgado  in  the  form  established  in  1535  continued  for 
twenty  years,  till  1556,  the  year  of  Charles'  abdication.  The 
officers  of  the  Casa  still  declined  to  nominate  deputies,  whether 
from  neglect  or  jealousy,  or  fear  of  responsibility,  is  unknown; 
and  so  in  December,  1556,  Philip  II  decreed  that  henceforth  the 
resident  appointed  by  the  Crown  should  exercise  his  authority 
alone.  The  order  provided,  however,  that  when  the  vessels  or 
fleets  were  of  sufficient  importance,  one  of  the  Sevillan  trio  or  his 
deputy  might  come  down  to  inspect  and  dispatch  them ;  and  that 
if  any  of  these  officials  happened  to  be  in  Cadiz,  they  should  per- 
form the  duties  of  the  Juzgado  in  company  with  the  regular  resi- 
dent.^ Passengers,  moreover,  had  all  to  be  cleared  by  the  Casa 
itself,  registers  of  outgoing  vessels  had  to  be  sent  to  Seville,  and 
ships  returning  from  the  Indies  had  all  to  go  directly  to  San  Lucar, 
thus  rescinding  the  grace  extended  to  Cadiz  in  1535.  But  again  it 
was  found  impossible  to  maintain  so  unnatural  a  rule,  and  within 
two  years,  in  April,  1558,  an  exception  was  made  in  favor  of 
vessels  from  Hispaniola  or  Porto  Rico  laden  with  hides  or  sugar, 
which  were  permitted  to  discharge  their  cargoes  in  Cadiz  harbor.^ 
This  dispensation  was  extended  in  1 560  to  any  vessels  in  distress 
or  such  as  were  unable  to  negotiate  the  bar  at  San  Lucar,  the 
treasure  they  carried  to  be  shipped  overland  with  the  registers  to 
Seville.^ 

So  the  rule  oscillated  back  and  forth  during  the  rest  of  the  six- 
teenth and  through  the  seventeenth  century.  For  those  who  care 
to  read,  the  argimients  pro  and  con  are  detailed  by  Veitia  Linaje 
in  his  Norte  de  la  Contratacion,  with  a  strong  bias  in  favor  of  Se- 
ville. Sometimes  the  fleets  were  ordered  to  sail  from  the  Guadal- 
quivir, sometimes,  because  of  the  increasing  tonnage  of  ocean- 
going ships,  from  the  neighboring  port.  But  the  headquarters  of 
the  Casa  de  Contratacion  and  of  the  great  exporting  houses  re- 
mained at  Seville.  Even  when  the  galleons  set  out  from  the  Gua- 
dalquivir, however,  a  certain  proportion  of  the  tonnage  was 
always  reserved  to  the  Gaditanos,  the  amount  being  fixed  each 
year  by  the  Council  of  the  Indies.  In  the  early  part  of  the  seven- 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  25,  par.  5;  Recop.,  lib.  ix,  tit.  4,  leyes  13,  14. 

2  A.  de  I.,  139.  I.  II,  lib.  23,  fol.  325,  345.         3  Recop.,  lib.  ix,  tit.  4,  ley  18. 


1 2  TRADE  AND  NA  VIGA  TION 

teenth  century  it  was  usually  a  fourth  or  a  fifth;  from  the  thirties 
onward  it  was  one  third. ^  Sevillan  merchants  seem  generally  to 
have  had  permission  to  lade  vessels  at  Cadiz  if  the  shipping  in  the 
Guadalquivir  was  insufficient,  but  ship  captains  at  Cadiz  might 
not  soHcit  freights  in  Seville  in  competition  with  Sevillan  mari- 
ners. There  seems  to  have  been  some  ground  for  the  fear  that  if 
traders  in  either  city  sent  goods  to  be  shipped  from  the  other,  the 
privilege  might  be  the  means  of  defrauding  the  customs.  By  the 
second  half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  however,  trade  in  Seville 
had  fallen  off  so  sadly  that  ships  were  unable  to  lade  a  third 
of  their  capacity  unless  they  resorted  to  Cadiz  exporters.  This 
development  was  inevitable,  for,  apart  from  the  selfish  interests  of 
the  Seville  monopolists,  Cadiz  harbor  was  in  every  respect  more 
convenient  and  desirable;  and  when  the  fleets  were  fitted  out 
there  either  wholly  or  in  part,  foreign  traders  were  sure  to  follow, 
in  order  to  avoid  the  expense  and  delays  of  carrying  their  goods 
twenty  leagues  inland  to  the  Casa  de  Contratacion.  We  find  an 
augury  of  this  change  as  early  as  1633,  when  owing  to  the  late 
arrival  of  the  ships  from  Italy  and  Flanders,  the  Flota  was  ordered 
to  proceed  to  Cadiz  to  receive  its  cargoes,  and  so  obviate  bringing 
the  imported  stuffs  to  Seville  for  reshipment.^ 

The  duties  of  the  Cadiz  resident  extended  to  the  admission  of 
vessels  to  the  American  trade,  the  bonding  of  shipmasters,  and  the 
inspection  of  cargoes.  His  authority  ceased  the  moment  the  vessel 
sailed  from  the  harbor.  He  was  apparently  allowed  jurisdiction 
over  minor  infractions  of  the  ordinances  of  the  Casa,  and  took  the 
preliminary  depositions  in  more  important  criminal  cases.  But 
all  correspondence  with  the  Council  of  the  Indies  had  to  pass 
through  the  hands  of  the  president  of  the  Casa,  especially  regard- 
ing the  amount  of  tonnage  to  be  assigned  annually  to  the  Gadi- 
tanos.  And  the  president  must  be  iaformed  in  writing  of  all 
important  matters  touching  the  resident's  activities.  The  latter 
from  time  to  time  endeavored  to  dignify  his  office  by  urging  the 
appointment  of  a  fiscal  or  judicial  prosecutor,  or  of  a  special  in- 
spector for  the  ships,  or  of  a  public  residence  where  he  might  hold 

1  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  25,  par.  22,  23,  28. 
*  Ibid.,  lib.  ii,  cap.  4,  par,  35. 


THE  SEVILLE  MONOPOLY  1 3 

a  regular  court  or  audiencia.    But  no  such  concessions  were  ever 
vouchsafed  him. 

Whatever  the  port  of  departure,  the  rule  became  fairly  con- 
stant that  all  vessels  and  fleets  must  return  to  the  Guadalquivir. 
In  the  seventeenth  century  the  penalty  for  noncompliance  was 
a  fine  of  6000  ducats.  The  reasons  were  the  solicitude  of  the 
government  for  the  payment  of  customs  and  other  dues,  and  the 
fear  that  elsewhere  gold  and  silver  from  America  might  more 
easily  be  spirited  away  to  foreign  lands.  Yet  in  this  respect,  too, 
there  were  frequent  exceptions.  Fleets  put  into  Vigo,  Coruna, 
Santander,  Lisbon,  Gibraltar  or  even  Malaga,  sometimes  by  order 
of  the  Crown  to  avoid  hostile  squadrons  cruising  about  Cape  St. 
Vincent,  but  more  often  owing  to  accidents  of  wind  and  weather. 
In  the  emperor's  reign,  when  trade  and  navigation  were  left  much 
freer  than  under  the  rule  of  his  son,  nearly  every  year  vessels  from 
the  West  appeared  at  Gibraltar  or  at  towns  on  the  Portuguese 
coast.  But  even  after  his  time,  their  arrival  at  other  ports  than 
San  Lucar  was  not  unusual.  Thus  in  the  year  1590  the  flagship 
and  another  galleon  of  the  fleet  of  Alvaro  de  Flores  entered  the 
Tagus,  and  the  silver,  amounting  it  was  said  to  over  three  million 
pesos,  was  conducted  in  galleys  to  Seville.  In  1598  the  flota  from 
New  Spain  touched  at  the  same  place  before  making  San  Lucar. 
In  1600  the  galleon,  San  Marcos,  appeared  at  Malaga,  having 
parted  from  the  fleet  soon  after  leaving  Havana  and  picked  her 
way  alone  across  the  Atlantic.  Why  she  chose  to  pass  through  the 
strait  into  the  Mediterranean,  instead  of  going  to  Cadiz,  is  not 
told  us.  But  as  she  was  in  imseaworthy  condition,  the  bullion, 
cochineal  and  indigo  she  carried  were  transported  overland  to  the 
Casa  de  Contra tacion.  In  1616  the  entire  fleet  commanded  by 
Tomas  de  la  Raspuru  put  into  Lisbon,  and  again  the  Crown 
ordered  the  treasure  to  be  sent  to  the  Casa  by  land,  although  the 
merchants  violently  protested  because  they  had  to  pay  an  extra 
assessment  of  one  per  cent  to  cover  the  expense  of  protecting  the 
transport.  Four  galleons  entered  the  harbor  of  Gibraltar  in  1636, 
and  in  1643  the  whole  fleet  of  D.  Pedro  de  Ursua.  In  1657,  what 
was  saved  of  the  bullion  on  the  ships  of  D.  Diego  de  Egues,  burnt 
in  the  harbor  of  Santa  Cruz  by  Admiral  Blake,  was  conveyed  on 


14  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

small  vessels  from  the  Canaries  to  Gibraltar,  and  then  overland 
to  the  Andalusian  metropolis.  Many  such  instances  might  be 
cited,  but  more  generally  the  government  insisted  upon  obedience 
to  the  law.  In  1610,  when  the  galleons  from  Porto  Bello  appeared 
in  Cadiz  harbor,  they  were  peremptorily  ordered  to  proceed  im- 
mediately to  the  Guadalquivir  without  touching  the  cargoes. 
And  in  1623,  when  the  "capitana"  and  another  vessel  of  the 
Mexican  fleet  entered  the  bay,  the  general  and  the  owner  of  the 
merchantman  were  each  mulcted  of  2000  ducats.* 

From  about  1630  onward  repeated  representations  were  made 
by  the  Casa  that  the  Juzgado  de  Cadiz  be  either  transferred  to 
San  Lucar  or  abolished  altogether,  on  account  of  the  frauds  prac- 
ticed in  the  matter  of  registration.  By  1664  pressure  on  the  Crown 
was  so  strong  that  ship  captains  and  the  generals  of  flotas  and 
armadas  were  ordered  to  sail  under  all  circumstances  to  and  from 
the  Guadalquivir,  on  pain  of  heavy  fines,  loss  of  rank  and  exclu- 
sion from  the  India  navigation,  although  for  nearly  thirty  years 
the  fleets  had  been  universally  despatched  from  Cadiz.^  Two 
years  later,  in  September,  1666,  the  Juzgado  was  entirely  extin- 
guished. The  jealousy  of  the  Casa  was  so  intense  that  in  1671  D. 
Jose  Centeno,  general  of  the  Flota^  was  sentenced  to  six  years 
imprisonment  at  Oran  and  a  fine  of  6000  ducats  because,  finding 
his  flagship  too  heavy  to  cross  the  San  Lucar  bar,  and  having  news 
of  hostile  ships  in  the  Strait  of  Gibraltar,  he  sailed  for  security 
into  Cadiz  harbor.  His  instructions  had  ordered  him  in  case  of 
danger  to  make  for  a  port  in  Galicia  or  Cantabria.  The  captain  of 
a  galleon  which  followed  the  flagship  into  Cadiz  waters  suffered  a 
similar  punishment.^ 

The  rival  port  remained  closed  to  American  commerce  till  1679, 
when  the  king,  mollified  by  a  gift  of  80,000  crowns  from  the  Gadi- 
tanos,  restored  the  Juzgado  on  its  former  basis.  In  fact  in  the  next 
year  the  wheel  of  fortune  had  so  completely  turned  that  all  the 
fleets  were  required  to  make  Cadiz  the  begiiming  and  end  of  their 

1  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  4,  par.  14,  23,  31.  After  the  abolition  of  customs 
duties  on  American  imports  in  1660  (see  Chapter  IV)  the  requirement  to  bring 
goods  overland  to  Seville  was  no  longer  insisted  upon. 

'  A.  de  I.,  139. 1.  16,  lib.  41,  fol.  148. 

'  Fernandez  Dure,  Armada  Espanola,  v,  p.  170. 


THE  SEVILLE  MONOPOLY  I S 

voyages.  And  Cadiz  succeeded  in  retaining  her  privileges  without 
notable  change  until  the  clairvoyance  of  a  new  dynasty  made  pos- 
sible the  transfer  in  171 7  to  her  port  of  the  Casa  de  Contratacion 
entire.  So  in  the  end  the  two  cities  exchanged  roles.  All  the  tri- 
bunals and  departments  of  the  Casa  were  set  up  in  Cadiz,  and  to 
her  fallen  adversary  was  left  the  Juzgado  de  Indias.^ 

Neither  Seville  nor  Cadiz,  the  major  seaports  of  Andalusia, 
were  necessarily  fitted  to  acquire  a  monopoly  of  American  com- 
merce. Barcelona  on  the  Mediterranean,  since  the  thirteenth 
century  one  of  the  great  mercantile  cities  of  Europe,  possessed 
a  commercial  position  and  experience  unique  in  the  peninsula. 
Malaga  vied  with  Seville  in  the  industry  and  maritime  enterprise 
of  her  inhabitants.  Bilbao  and  the  other  ports  of  Biscay  were 
busily  engaged  in  the  great  fisheries,  and  had  with  the  north, 
especially  with  Flanders,  a  rather  extended  trade. 

Charles  V,  with  a  range  of  vision  continental  rather  than  Castil- 
ian,  in  order  to  facilitate  emigration  and  trade,  in  January,  1529, 
issued  a  cedula  allowing  vessels  to  sail  directly  to  the  Indies  from 
certain  other  ports  of  the  peninsula:  Coruiia,  Bayona,  Aviles, 
Laredo,  Bilbao  and  San  Sebastian  on  the  Biscayan  coasts,  Car- 
tagena and  Malaga  on  the  Mediterranean,  and  Cadiz  on  the 
Atlantic.  The  ships  might  register  in  these  ports  before  the  royal 
judge  and  certain  officials  of  the  municipality,  but  were  obliged 
always  to  make  their  return  voyage  to  Seville,  and  report  their 
cargoes  to  the  officers  of  the  Casa.  A  copy  of  the  register  must 
within  three  months  of  the  departure  of  the  vessel  be  forwarded 
to  the  Council  of  the  Indies.^ 

Strangely  enough,  there  is  little  evidence  that  this  liberty  was 
made  use  of.  Indeed  the  historian  Herrera,  and  Veitia  Linaje,  are 
entirely  silent  regarding  it.  The  cedula  appears  only  in  the  col- 
lection of  decrees  and  ordinances  published  by  Diego  de  Encinas 
in  1596.^  It  is  odd,  too,  that  Cadiz  should  have  been  included, 
when  that  city  already  possessed  the  privilege  of  clearing  vessels 
for  the  Indies.   If,  moreover,  by  the  general  terms  of  this  cedula 

*  Antunez  y  Acevedo,  pp.  9  f. 

*  Ibid.y  appendix  i;  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  x,  p.  3.  ^  Encinas,  iv,  p.  133. 


1 6  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

ships  sailing  from  Cadiz  had  only  to  register  before  the  ordinary 
municipal  authorities,  without  the  intervention  of  Sevillan  offi- 
cials or  their  representatives,  why  did  the  city,  always  impatient 
of  her  subordinate  position,  not  take  advantage  of  this  freedom  ? 
And  why  the  concern  of  the  Crown  in  1530  and  1535  over  the  regu- 
lation of  the  Juzgado  de  Indias  ?  Yet  that  such  an  ordinance  was 
pubHshed  by  Charles  V  is  confirmed  by  decrees  of  December  i 
and  21,  1573,  forbidding  the  Biscayan  ports  to  send  vessels  to 
America  except  in  company  with  the  fleets  from  Seville  or  Cadiz, 
and  after  registration  and  inspection  by  the  officers  of  the  Casa.^ 
From  the  negative  tenor  of  certain  other  cedulas  affecting  the 
India  navigation,  between  the  years  1543  and  1564,  it  would 
appear  that  the  ordinance  had  been  revoked  even  earlier.  Yet 
in  the  Book  of  Registers  of  vessels  plying  between  Spain  and 
the  Indies  in  the  years  1504-79,2  we  find  a  ship  sailing  from 
Malaga  as  late  as  155 1.  The  cedulas  of  December,  1573,  too,  re- 
late that  the  towns  of  Galicia  were  then  sending  vessels  to  America 
independently  of  the  fleets,  and  speaks  of  the  practice  as  "  la 
costumbre  que  se  ha  tenido  hast  a  agora."  It  is  clear,  however,  in 
spite  of  such  testimony,  that  the  license  granted  by  Charles  V 
remained  for  the  most  part  a  dead  letter.  Although  the  year  1529, 
in  which  it  was  issued,  saw  also  the  conclusion  of  the  second  war 
between  the  emperor  and  Francis  I,  the  peace  between  sovereigns 
did  not  restrain  the  activities  of  the  French  corsairs,  who  were 
becoming  every  year  a  graver  menace  to  the  merchant  marine  of 
Spain.  It  was  this  menace  which  forced  upon  the  Spanish  Crown 
the  establishment  of  a  system  of  great  merchant  fleets  protected 
by  powerful  convoys,  sailing  periodically  between  Spain  and  her 
ultramarine  possessions.  If  the  danger  was  a  frequent  one  on  the 
coast  of  Andalusia,  it  was  ever  present  in  the  Bay  of  Biscay. 
Ships  sailing  to  the  Indies  alone  from  Coruna,  Bilbao  or  other 
ports  near  the  French  coast  ran  a  difficult  and  perilous  course; 
and  there  was  probably  little  incentive  to  Biscayan  merchants  to 
take  advantage  of  the  privilege  offered  them.  It  was  safer  to  have 
a  share  in  the  Seville  trade,  and  join  the  flotas  which  aheady  in  the 
late  twenties  and  the  thirties  were  being  organized  for  the  naviga- 
*  Antunez  y  Acevedo,  appendices  2,  3.  *  A.  de  I.,  30.  2.  1/3. 


THE  SEVILLE  MONOPOLY  1 7 

tion  to  America.  As  for  Malaga  and  Cartagena  on  the  Mediter- 
ranean, these  ports  in  the  days  when  ships  were  small,  slow  and 
clumsy,  were  much  farther  from  America  than  they  are  today,  and 
they  could  scarcely  compete  on  equal  terms  with  the  Andalusian 
towns  to  the  west.  Some  few  vessels  must  have  sailed,  however, 
both  from  Biscay  and  from  the  Mediterranean,  and  if  the  registers 
are  missing  in  the  archives  of  Seville  today,  it  is  perhaps  because, 
by  the  law  of  1529,  these  registers  had  to  be  sent  to  the  Council  of 
the  Indies  and  not  to  the  Casa  de  Contra tacion.  It  seems  likely 
that  in  the  sixties  the  Galician  ports  resurrected  the  old  rule  and 
proceeded  to  act  upon  it.^  Thereupon  the  merchant  gild  of  Seville 
protested  to  the  king  that  such  an  infraction  of  their  monopoly 
was  a  source  of  fraud  and  a  loss  of  trade;  and  Philip  II,  realizing 
that  to  avoid  being  cheated  of  his  dues  on  import  and  export  it  was 
best  to  confine  traffic  to  a  single  port,  issued  the  revocation  of 

1573. 

A  century  later,  in  1667,  the  citizens  of  Malaga  appealed  to  the 
Council  of  the  Indies  for  permission  to  resume  this  commerce  with 
America.  They  pleaded  that  the  right  had  never  been  withdrawn, 
and  offered  among  other  evidence  a  judgment  obtained  in  1553 
against  the  officials  of  the  Casa,  restraining  them  from  inter- 
ference. In  1794  this  writ  still  existed  in  the  archives  of  the 
municipality.  The  appeal  was  refused,  although  no  proof  was 
produced  that  the  Malaguenos  had  ever  lost  their  privilege.  As 
a  matter  of  fact  the  revocation  of  1573  makes  no  mention  either 
of  Malaga  or  of  Cartagena.^ 

Whatever  the  real  story  of  this  generous  provision  of  the  young 
emperor,  it  is  unquestionable  that  from  1574  onwards  the  only 
ports  in  the  peninsula  qualified  for  the  India  trade  were  Seville 
and  Cadiz.  And  they  remained  so  till  the  second  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century. 

Outside  the  peninsula  there  was  one  region  permitted  to  enter 
into  mercantile  relations  with  the  New  World.   As  early  as  De- 

^  A.  de  I.,  139. 1.  II,  lib.  24,  fol.  148:  "Orden  d  los  gobernadores  de  la  Conina  y 
Bayona  en  Galicia  para  que  envien  relacion  de  los  navios  que  ban  salido  de  esos 
puertos  para  las  Indias  en  seis  anos  y  cargazones  que  ban  llevado." 

2  Antunez  y  Acevedo,  p.  24,  note;  and  appendices  4,  5. 


1 8  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 


cember,  1508,  in  order  to  encourage  trade  with  the  struggling 
colony  on  Hispaniola,  Spanish  merchants  were  given  the  right  to 
buy  in  the  Canary  Islands  and  carry  to  the  Indies  any  class  of 
merchandise  not  generally  prohibited  by  the  Crown;  and  the 
Casa  de  Contratacion  was  ordered  to  send  a  person  there  with 
sufficient  authority  to  take  charge  of  the  matter.^  That  this 
liberty  continued  is  evident  from  a  series  of  later  ordinances.  Two 
royal  decrees  of  September  20, 1518,  warn  the  local  authorities  on 
the  islands  not  to  levy  any  duties  on  the  goods  of  merchants  or 
ship  captains  trading  with  America.^  And  in  1534  the  islanders 
themselves  were  allowed  to  send  their  products  other  than  luxuries 
(mantenimientos),  without  any  formality  except  declaring  them 
before  the  notary  of  the  port  from  which  they  were  shipped.^ 
Whether  the  Casa  neglected  to  keep  a  representative  there,  as  had 
happened  in  the  case  of  Cadiz,  does  not  appear.  It  seems  that  at 
first  vessels  intending  to  carry  goods  from  the  Canaries  had  to 
start  from  Seville  with  a  license  from  the  officers  of  the  Casa.*  In 
the  Book  of  Registers  J  however,  after  1548  when  the  ports  of  de- 
parture and  destination  are  indicated,  we  find  nearly  every  year 
vessels  sailing  directly  from  certain  of  these  islands.  Twenty-five 
ships  were  registered  from  Santa  Cruz  in  1550,  and  thirty-one  in 
1551-52.  In  1 55 1  seventeen  sailed  from  Tenerife,  nineteen  in 
1552,  and  ten  in  1553.^  In  capitulations  of  1556  and  1561  renew- 
ing the  privilege  to  the  islanders  of  Tenerife,  they  were  required 
to  deposit  with  the  Casa  de  Contratacion  a  bond  of  5000  duc- 
ats in  gold,  as  security  that  they  would  remit  the  registers  each 
year  to  Seville,  and  that  ships  in  returning  would  sail  to  the  Gua- 
dalquivir. As  the  government  was  informed  that  foreign  mer- 
chants and  goods  found  their  way  to  the  colonies  under  cover  of 
this  concession,  in  1561  the  islanders  were  required  to  give  a 
similar  bond  to  the  royal  court  in  Tenerife  to  abide  by  all  the  con- 
ditions of  the  grant.  In  this  same  year  it  was  specified  that  only 
foreigners  who  had  property  and  a  ten  years  residence,  and  had 
married  a  woman  of  Spain  or  the  Canaries,  might  share  in  the 

*  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  v,  p.  159.  2  N.M.C.,  xxi,  no.  i. 

3  A.  de  I.,  139. 1.  8,  lib.  16,  fol.  140.  Neither  Veitia  Linaje  nor  Antimez  y  Acevedo 
was  aware  of  any  license  extended  to  them  before  1556. 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  25,  par.  10,      ^  A.  de  I.,  30.  2.  1/3. 


THE  SEVILLE  MONOPOLY  1 9 

trade.  As  by  that  time  the  system  of  annual  fleets  was  under  way, 
Canary  ships  were  forbidden  to  return  from  the  Indies  unless 
properly  armed  and  convoyed.^ 

The  Canaries  from  their  position  formed  a  very  convenient 
watering  and  victualling  station  for  ships  sailing  either  to  the 
West  or  to  the  East  Indies.  Columbus  on  his  first  voyage  tarried 
at  Grand  Canary  and  Gomera  to  refit,  and  after  the  discovery  of 
America  these  islands  became  a  regular  port  of  call.  If  they  were 
convenient  for  Spaniards  they  were  equally  convenient  for  other 
nations.  Traders  were  attracted  there  from  the  maritime  coun- 
tries of  northern  Europe,  Bretons,  Flemings,  Scotch  and  English. 
The  Canaries  were  a  usual  stage  in  Hawkins'  slaving  voyages  to 
Guinea  and  the  Caribbean;  and  in  1538  permission  to  traffic  with 
them  was  formally  allowed  to  the  Bristol  merchants  by  Charles  V.^ 
The  commerce  of  the  islands  was  therefore  considerable.  Of 
their  chief  exports,  wine  and  sugar,  the  former  was  the  only  one 
demanded  in  the  Indies.  But  the  presence  of  foreign  merchants 
opened  loopholes  for  other  and  prohibited  commodities,  especially 
as  the  islands  were  far  from  the  metropolis  and  their  trade  difficult 
of  control.  In  the  early  part  of  Philip  II's  reign  the  Crown  saw  fit 
to  set  up  a  regular  institution  similar  to  the  Juzgado  of  Cadiz. 
Ordinances  of  January,  1564,  and  October,  1566,  provided  for 
resident  judges,  "  jueces  de  registros,''  appointed  by  the  Coimcil 
of  the  Indies,  in  the  three  islands  of  Grand  Canary,  Tenerife 
and  La  Pahna;  and  a  long  series  of  decrees  from  1566  onwards 
defined  the  authority  and  jurisdiction  of  these  officials.^  They 
exercised  all  the  powers  of  the  officers  of  the  Casa  de  Contra tacion, 
including  those  of  a  judicial  nature.  There  was  an  appeal  to  the 
Casa,  except  in  cases  involving  40,000  maravedis  or  less,  when 
the  appeal  went  to  the  local  audiencia.  If  the  sentence  was  one 
of  mutilation,  banishment  or  death,  the  case  might  be  reviewed 
by  the  Council  of  the  Indies."* 

1  A.  de  I.,  Patr.  2.  1. 1/18,  no.  61;  Antimez  y  Acevedo,  pp.  26  f.;  Recop.,  lib.  ix, 
tit.  41,  ley  15. 

2  Alberti  and  Chapman,  English  Merchants  and  the  Spanish  Inquisition  in  the 
Canaries,  p.  xiii. 

^  Recop.,  lib.  ix,  tit.  40,  41;  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  25. 
*  Recop.,  lib.  v,  tit.  12,  ley  5. 


20  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

The  favorable  situation  of  the  Canaries  as  an  entrepot  for  con- 
traband trade  made  the  islands  a  never-ending  source  of  irritation 
to  the  authorities  in  Spain.  From  the  time  the  resident  judges 
were  established,  and  especially  in  the  seventeenth  century,  there 
was  a  stream  of  complaints  by  the  Casa  of  irregularities.  After 
repeated  representations  to  the  Crown,  it  was  decided  in  1612 
that  the  Council  of  the  Indies  should  indicate  each  year  the  ton- 
nage allowed  to  the  islands  in  the  Indian  trade,  that  the  Casa 
select  the  American  ports  to  which  Canary  ships  might  sail,  and 
that  only  vessels  of  inferior  size  be  employed.*  In  the  beginning  of 
1649  the  traffic  was  entirely  prohibited ;  but  only  for  a  few  months, 
the  privilege  being  partially  renewed  again  for  a  term  of  six  years. 
In  1657  the  three  jueces  de  registros  were  aboHshed,  and  a 
superintendent  judge  appointed  from  among  the  members  of  the 
Casa  to  reside  in  Tenerif  e,  with  subdelegates  in  Grand  Canary  and 
La  Palma.  At  the  same  time  the  annual  allowance  of  trade  was 
fixed  at  five  ships  with  a  total  of  not  over  1000  tons;  and  Canary 
boats  which  did  not  carry  treasure  were  permitted  to  make  their 
return  voyage  to  the  islands  without  resort  first  to  Seville.^  In 
this  form  the  concession  was  repeatedly  renewed  until  the  more 
liberal  times  of  Charles  III.^ 

^  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  25,  par.  15.  A  later  c6dula,  of  May,  1621,  directed 
that  vessels  from  Seville  be  preferred  to  Canary  boats  in  the  assignment  of  cargoes 
in  American  ports.    Ihid.,  cap.  17,  par.  35. 

'  Recop.,  lib.  ix,  tit.  40,  leyes  22-30. 

'  Antunez  y  Acevedo,  pp.  34  f . 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  CASA  DE  CONTRATACION 

The  initial  step,  one  may  say,  in  the  development  of  an  adminis- 
trative system  for  the  control  of  trade  and  navigation  between 
Spain  and  the  Western  Indies,  was  taken  in  May,  1493,  when  Fer- 
dinand and  Isabella  chose  a  member  of  their  council,  Juan  Rod- 
riguez de  Fonseca,  archdeacon  of  Seville  and  the  Queen's  chaplain, 
to  cooperate  with  Columbus  in  preparing  for  the  second  voyage.^ 
Fonseca,  a  man  of  noble  family  and  an  administrator  of  consider- 
able ability,  held  in  his  hands  virtually  complete  direction  of 
colonial  affairs  till  the  creation,  ten  years  later,  of  the  Casa  de 
Contratacion.  He  may,  indeed,  have  been  in  some  measure 
responsible  for  the  organization  of  that  institution  and  the  ideas 
it  embodied.  Although  jealous  of  his  equals  and  an  implacable 
enemy,  as  Columbus  and  Cortes  found  to  their  cost,  he  succeeded 
in  retaining  the  favor  of  the  sovereigns,  and  was  promoted  in 
turn  to  the  bishoprics  of  Badajoz,  Palencia  and  Burgos.  After 
the  establishment  of  the  Casa  had  taken  from  him  the  immediate 
superintendence  of  commercial  matters,  he  continued  to  be  prac- 
tically the  colonial  minister,  till  the  evolution  of  the  Council  of 
the  Indies  under  Charles  V  diverted  the  responsibility  to  a  group 
of  ministers. 

The  first  ordinances  for  the  Casa  de  Contratacion  were  issued 
from  Alcala  de  Henares  on  January  20, 1503,^  and  on  February  14 
three  officials  were  appointed  to  take  charge  of  the  new  institu- 
tion. They  were  a  treasurer.  Dr.  Sancho  de  Matienzo,  canon  of 
the  cathedral  of  Seville;  a  comptroller  and  secretary  (contador), 
Jimeno  de  Briviesca;  and  a  business  manager  or  factor,  a  Genoese 
napaed  Francisco  Pinelo.^     Pinelo  and  Briviesca  had  acted  in 

*  Viajes,  ii,  pp.  48,  78. 

*  Ibid. J  p.  285;  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  v,  p.  29;  xxxi,  p.  139. 

*  Pinelo  died  in  1509,  and  was  succeeded  by  Pedro  Ochoa  Isasaga.  Jimeno  de 
Briviesca  survived  him  a  year,  and  was  followed  by  Juan  Lopez  de  Recalde.    The 


22  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

similar  capacities  in  connection  with  the  preparations  for  Co- 
lumbus' later  expeditions. 

The  Casa  de  Contratacion  was  the  first  administrative  body 
created  in  Spain  to  take  care  of  the  new  discoveries  in  America. 
As  its  name  indicates,  it  was  an  establishment  essentially  com- 
mercial in  character.  But  if  we  are  to  judge  from  the  tenor  of 
the  first  ordinances,  it  was  intended  to  be  primarily  a  "  house  of 
commerce  "  in  the  sense  of  any  private  business  house,  an  organi- 
zation for  carrying  on  the  trade  of  the  Crown  with  the  Indies.  It 
was  to  gather  in  its  warehouses  merchandise  and  naval  stores  of 
every  sort  required  for  the  American  trade,  and  receive  there  all 
brought  back  in  exchange  to  Spain.  Its  ofiicers  were  expected  to 
keep  in  correspondence  with  royal  factors  in  the  colonies,  to  study 
with  closest  attention  the  needs  of  the  new  settlements,  the  things 
most  seasonable  for  shipping,  and  the  vessels  most  convenient  to 
send.  They  were  to  watch  the  state  of  the  market,  buy  and  sell 
only  when  most  advantageous  for  the  Crown,  and  keep  systematic 
and  detailed  record  of  all  their  transactions. 

It  is  clear  that  this  is  no  mere  bureau  of  the  government  de- 
signed to  exercise  a  general  supervision  over  the  commercial 
activities  of  private  individuals.  Either  the  Crown,  if  it  did  not 
revert  to  its  earliest  policy  of  engrossing  the  American  trade, 
still  took  an  active  share  in  it,^  or  it  was  intending  to  compete 
for  such  a  share.  Ferdinand  V  was  no  less  shrewd  than  his  con- 
temporary, Henry  VII  of  England,  and  both  sovereigns  resorted 
to  mercantile  adventure  to  help  fill  an  exchequer  which  was  feeling 

priestly  treasurer,  Matienzo,  lived  till  December,  15  21.  His  nephew,  Domingo  de 
Orchandiano,  acted  as  treasurer  ad  interim,  till  the  appointment  of  Nuno  de  Gumiel 
in  May,  1523. 

1  A  year  earlier,  in  December,  1501,  when  Ovando  was  preparing  to  leave  for 
Hispaniola,  he  received  warning  from  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  that  the  people  cross- 
ing with  him  had  "  adorned  themselves  with  clothes  and  other  articles  "  beyond 
what  was  necessary,  and  presumed  to  be  for  purposes  of  sale  or  exchange.  No  such 
transactions  were  to  be  permitted,  although  he  was  to  keep  the  order  secret  until  the 
fleet  reached  Hispaniola.  The  cedula  makes  especial  mention  of  the  ship  "  of  our 
factor."     Colecc.  de  doc.y  2d  ser.,  v,  p.  22. 

See  instructions  to  the  Casa  of  July  28, 1503,  regardmg  licenses  to  private  persons 
to  carry  provisions,  etc.,  to  Hispaniola,  provided  that  on  arrival  they  deliver  a 
certain  proportion  of  their  goods  to  the  factor  of  the  Crown;  also,  instructions  to 
Juan  de  Ampies,  royal  factor  in  Hispaniola,  October,  151 1.    Ihid.,  pp.  61,  336. 


THE  CASA  DE  CONTRATACldN  23 

the  strain  of  an  over-ambitious  diplomacy.  It  is  likely  that 
Ferdinand  had  in  mind  an  eventual  monopolistic  control  such  as 
his  Portuguese  cousins  were  evolving  for  the  trade  with  the  East 
Indies.  Manoel,  king  of  Portugal,  after  the  return  of  Vasco  da 
Gama  from  his  celebrated  voyage  in  1498-99,  confined  the 
new  communications  with  India  and  the  Malabar  coast  to  fleets 
chartered  and  equipped  under  his  direction.  There  was  also  a 
Casa  da  India,  where  the  ships  were  fitted  out  and  the  oriental 
cargoes,  when  received,  sold  or  stored  as  the  king  saw  fit.  In  the 
very  beginning,  Portuguese  subjects,  and  even  Italian  and  Ger- 
man merchants,  were  sometimes  permitted  to  assist,  by  contribut- 
ing vessels  and  sending  their  own  factors  for  the  purchase  of 
spices.  But  their  action  was  very  circumscribed.  The  minimum 
purchase  price  in  the  East  and  selling  price  at  Lisbon  were  settled 
by  the  Crown  so  as  not  to  compete  with  the  royal  trade.  And 
from  about  15 12,  although  the  Portuguese  still  obtained  special 
licenses  to  share  in  this  commerce,  traffic  in  spices  seems  to  have 
been  exclusively  a  royal  monopoly,  the  king  disposing  of  his 
stocks  by  contract  to  groups  or  corporations  of  merchants  organ- 
ized for  that  specific  purpose. 

The  earliest  ledgers  of  the  Casa  de  Contratacion  reveal  a  some- 
what similar  situation  in  Spain.  Trade  by  royal  factors  was  evi- 
dently anticipated,  and  many  of  the  ships  bound  for  America 
were  royal  ships,  the  Crown  receiving  the  passage  money  for  pas- 
sengers and  cargo.  If  this  was  Ferdinand's  purpose,  however,  we 
may  conclude  from  the  silence  of  later  records  that  it  was  not  long 
persisted  in.  The  circumstances  of  the  two  cases  were  so  different 
as  to  make  such  a  policy  toward  America  scarcely  practicable. 
The  Portuguese  were  trading  with  old  countries,  densely  popu- 
lated, governed  by  organized,  long-established  institutions.  Their 
colonies  in  the  East  were  merely  "  factories,''  stations  on  the 
coast  where  were  received  the  native  products  of  the  interior,  and 
whither  repaired  the  fleets  to  carry  these  products  to  the  markets 
of  Europe.  They  were  so  many  excrescences  upon  the  oriental 
body  politic,  their  governors  exercised  no  permanent  influence 
on  the  fortimes  of  eastern  nations,  and  they  were  the  germ  of  no 
extensive  or  enduring  colonial  empire.    The  task  of  Spain  was  a 


24  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

much  more  difficult  and  more  glorious  one.  The  greater  part  of 
the  western  hemisphere  was  sparsely  peopled  by  a  nomad  and 
primitive  race,  depending  for  sustenance  on  the  game  of  streams 
and  forests.  Even  the  so-called  empires  of  Peru  and  Mexico, 
when  divested  of  the  glamor  of  Prescott's  style,  assume  a  bar- 
barian complexion  which  bears  no  comparison  with  the  civiliza- 
tions of  India  and  China.  The  Spaniards  had  two  continents  to 
explore  and  conquer.  In  a  wilderness  they  laid  the  foundations 
of  civilized,  European  communities.  It  was  a  task  too  great  for 
a  government  unassisted  by  the  inducements  and  initiative  of 
private  enterprise.  If  the  expense  of  Columbus'  voyages  was 
borne  by  the  Crown,  later  explorers,  Ojeda,  Pinzon,  Bastidas  and 
Solis,  and  colonizers  like  Arriaga  and  Pedrarias  Davila,  had  to 
imdertake  expeditions  at  their  own  cost.  The  settling  and  pro- 
visioning of  the  colonies  was  a  sore  problem  in  these  early  years, 
and  it  was  not  to  be  expected  that  their  growth  would  be  fostered 
by  a  government  monopoly  of  trade. 

If  a  monopoly  was  intended,  it  was  not  the  last  time  that  the 
suggestion  was  brought  forward.  In  1556  Nicolas  de  Cardona 
was  urging  upon  the  Crown  to  undertake  alone  the  "  contra- 
tacion"  of  the  colonies,  and  the  proposal  evidently  received  some 
consideration  in  the  Council  of  the  Indies.  The  king,  he  said, 
needed  a  capital  of  one  million  ducats.  He  should  keep  factors 
resident  at  the  fairs  in  Castile,  and  in  Antwerp,  Rouen  and 
Florence,  and  should  put  the  business  in  Seville  in  charge  of  a 
group  of  wealthy,  experienced  men.^  But  Philip  II  in  1556  had 
excellent  uses  for  every  ducat  he  could  lay  hands  on,  and  to  meet 
the  necessary  expenses  of  government  was  seizing  the  gold  and 
silver  remitted  to  private  merchants  on  every  fleet  that  reached 
the  shores  of  Spain.  Perhaps  some  of  the  dispossessed  persons 
felt  that  if  the  government  took  over  the  entire  American  trade, 
its  profits  might  be  no  less  and  they  could  lose  no  more. 

In  the  ordinances  of  1503,  the  officials  of  the  Casa  were  in- 
structed to  use  great  care  in  the  choice  of  captains  for  the  India 
navigation,  and  to  send  with  each  ship  a  clerk  (escribano),  before 

^  A.  de  I.,  Patr.  2.  i.  1/18,  no.  59;  N.M.C.,  no.  48. 


THE  CAS  A  DE  CONTRATACldN  2$ 

whom  must  be  registered  every  article  of  the  cargo  put  on  board.* 
The  registers  or  manifests,  signed  by  the  ship^s  master,  were  to  be 
delivered  to  the  royal  factors  in  the  Indies,  and  receipts  brought 
back  on  the  return  voyage  to  Seville.  All  goods  coming  from 
America  must  be  similarly  registered,  and  the  captains  and  escri- 
banos  be  given  full  written  instructions  as  to  their  duties  on  the 
voyage  and  in  American  ports.  Once  a  year  the  officers  of  the 
Casa  were  to  send  the  king  their  ledgers  of  credit  and  debit 
complete,  for  royal  examination. 

The  India  House  was  not  concerned  solely  with  the  commerce 
of  the  New  World,  although  that  was  soon  so  overwhelmingly 
important  that  any  other  is  generally  lost  sight  of.  It  also  had 
supervision  over  trade  with  the  Canary  Islands,  with  Barbary 
and  the  Spanish  stations  on  the  African  coast,  subject  to  the  same 
rules  as  governed  the  India  traffic.  Until  1508  the  accounts  for 
these  regions  were  kept  distinct  from  *'  cosas  de  Indias."  After 
that  date  they  were  completely  merged.  But  even  before  1508 
the  receipts  from  Africa  and  the  Canaries  amounted  to  less  than 
two  per  cent  of  the  whole,  and  in  later  years  their  effect  was 
inappreciable. 2 

The  first  residence  provided  for  the  Casa  was  in  the  Atarazanas, 
or  arsenal  of  Seville;  but  in  June  of  the  same  year  Isabella  issued 
an  order  transferring  it  to  apartments  in  the  Alcazar  Real 

^  This  escrihano,  an  ancient  institution  in  the  history  of  navigation,  was  provided 
for  as  far  back  as  April,  1495,  in  the  royal  orders  permitting  free  trade  and  emigra- 
tion to  the  west.  The  appointment,  at  first  belonging  to  the  master  of  the  ship, 
after  1533  devolved  upon  the  Casa  de  Contratacion,  and  later  upon  the  merchants' 
gild  or  Consulado  of  Seville.  In  the  seventeenth  century  at  least,  the  post  was 
usually  put  up  for  sale. 

2  The  Casa,  at  least  in  the  beginning,  seems  also  to  have  collected  the  govern- 
ment tax  on  the  tuna  fisheries  of  the  Andalusian  coast. 

Another  Casa  de  Contrataci6n  was  erected  at  Coruna  in  December,  1522,  after 
the  voyage  of  Magellan,  for  the  dispatch  of  fleets  to  trade  with  the  Moluccas.  It 
was  established  in  the  north  probably  to  be  closer  to  Antwerp,  which  after  Lisbon 
was  the  principal  emporium  for  the  spice  trade.  It  never  assumed  any  importance, 
however,  for  the  voyage  round  South  America  proved  too  long  and  difficult,  and  the 
Portuguese  stubbornly  maintained  their  claim  to  the  islands.  In  1529  Charles  V, 
urged  by  financial  necessities,  ceded  all  political  and  commercial  rights  to  the 
Moluccas  for  350,000  ducats  in  gold.  Viajes,  iv,  p.  389;  Colecc.  de  Vargas  y  Ponce 
(Hydrographic  Office,  Madrid),  leg.  i,  no.  9. 


26  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

formerly  occupied  by  the  admiralty  court.  The  building,  with 
some  additions  after  a  fire  in  1605,  continued  to  house  the  Casa 
till  the  eighteenth  century.' 

The  Casa  established,  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  were  soon  forced 
to  return  to  their  earlier,  more  liberal,  policy  regarding  trade  and 
navigation  in  American  waters.  The  freedom  conceded  in  1495 
had  lasted  only  a  few  years.  After  the  autumn  of  1501  special 
licenses  from  the  Crown  had  in  every  case  been  required.  And  the 
ordinances  of  the  Casa  in  1503  revealed  a  desire  to  make  American 
commerce  a  monopoly  of  the  government.  But  any  restrictions 
were  prejudicial  to  the  welfare  and  expansion  of  the  colony  in 
Hispaniola.  The  settlers  complained  that  they  suffered  from 
lack  of  provisions  and  other  supplies  from  the  mother  country. 
It  was  necessary  to  let  down  the  bars,  and  in  response  to  petitions 
from  the  island  a  new  order  was  issued  in  February  of  1504.  For 
ten  years  any  inhabitant  of  Hispaniola  or  any  other  subject  of 
Castile  might  export  to  the  colony  without  special  Hcense  articles 
necessary  for  its  provisioning  and  maintenance,  provided  they 
were  carried  on  Spanish  ships,  and  did  not  include  slaves,  arms, 
horses,  or  gold  or  silver  in  any  form.^  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
this  decree  distinguishes  clearly  CastiHans  from  other  subjects  of 
the  Crown,  in  Hmiting  the  privilege  of  free  trade  with  the  New 
World. 

In  March,  1503,  two  months  after  the  creation  of  the  Casa  de 
Contratacion,  instructions  had  been  sent  to  Nicolas  de  Ovando, 
governor  of  Hispaniola,  to  set  up  an  analagous  institution  there, 
which  was  to  maintain  a  correspondence  with  that  in  Spain.    It 

1  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  v,  p.  53;  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  i,  par.  2. 

It  seems  that  at  first  the  officers  were  permitted  to  live  in  the  building  of  the  Casa. 
In  October,  15 18,  however,  Charles  V  peremptorily  ordered  them  to  leave,  for  the 
Casa,  continued  the  cedula,  was  intended,  not  as  a  dweUing  for  officials,  but  as  a 
place  of  meeting  for  the  administration  of  Indian  affairs,  and  for  the  receipt  of  gold 
and  other  commodities  from  the  colonies,  A.  de  I.,  139.  i.  5,  lib.  7,  fol.  86,  114. 
This  policy  continued  till  August,  1543,  when  the  treasurer,  contador,  and  factor 
were  obliged  to  live  in  the  Casa.  Later  certain  other  employees  were  also  provided 
with  apartments  there.    Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  i,  par.  4. 

At  present  the  buildings,  situated  on  a  small  square  which  preserves  the  name  of 
Contrataci6n,  are  converted  into  dwelling  houses  belonging  to  the  royal  patrimony. 

2  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xxxi,  p.  233;  Viajes,  iii,  p.  523. 


THE  CAS  A  DE  CONTRATACldN  27 

was  an  obvious  development  of  the  purpose  originally  expressed 
in  the  Casa,  that  there  should  be  royal  "factories  "  in  the  Indies 
to  manage  the  king's  trade  there.  Indeed  the  instructions  are 
but  a  reiteration  of  the  orders  issued  to  Columbus  for  his  second 
voyage  in  1493,  ^^^^  ^  customhouse  be  immediately  estabUshed 
in  the  New  World,  in  charge  of  representatives  of  the  Crown 
and  the  Admiral,  for  the  deposit  of  royal  merchandise.  The 
Casa  de  Contratacion  of  Seville  was  evidently  but  the  coping 
to  a  system  to  be  applied  generally  to  the  newly-discovered  lands. 
But  as  the  idea  of  a  monopoly  was  gradually  lost  sight  of,  the 
Casas  in  America  became  Httle  more  than  customhouses  in  the 
ordinary  sense  of  the  term.  Like  the  Casa  in  Seville,  they  were 
under  the  supervision  of  a  treasurer,  factor  and  contador,  three 
officials  who  came  to  be  known  specifically  as  the  "  royal  officials  '* 
(oficiales  reales),  and  composed  what  may  be  called  the  adminis- 
trative organization  of  the  colonial  treasuries.  Even  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  these  officers  in  the  principal  cities  of  Amer- 
ica were  sometimes  referred  to  collectively  as  the  Casa  de  Con- 
tratacion, and  given  the  same  title,  '^  jueces  oficiales,"  as  had 
been  applied  to  the  three  in  Spain. ^  As  most  of  the  tribute  from 
the  Indians  was  in  kind  —  wheat,  com,  cloth,  cocoa,  honey,  wax, 
cotton,  etc.  —  and  this  tribute  disposed  of  in  public  auction,  to 
that  degree  they  constituted  a  "house  of  trade."  But  their 
duties  related  chiefly  to  the  general  superintendence  of  the  ex- 
chequer, and  in  so  far  as  they  touched  over-seas  trade,  were  con- 
fined to  the  collection  of  customs  and  the  registration  of  cargoes. 
The  oficiales  reales  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  regulating  of  com- 
merce, and  little  occasion  for  "  correspondence  "  with  the  India 
House. 

There  is  also  evidence  that  when  a  colonial  Casa  de  Contra- 
tacion is  spoken  of  in  letters  and  decrees,  a  material  building  is 
meant,  and  not  an  institution  like  that  of  Seville.  Ferdinand 
wrote  to  Ovando  in  July,  1508:  "  .  .  .  en  lo  de  la  casa  de  con- 
tratacion que  alia  se  ha  de  hacer,  se  debe  dar  mucha  prisa,  pues 

^  Colecc.  de  Espana,  lii,  pp.  527  f.  In  the  beginning  there  was  often  a  fourth 
official,  the  '  veedor  de  fundiciones  y  rescates/  but  this  office  soon  disappeared,  and 
in  some  places  that  of  factor  as  well. 


28  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

ay  recaudo  de  los  aparejos,  por  la  mucha  necesidad  que  ay  de  la 
dicha  casa."  And  in  a  letter  of  instructions  to  the  Audiencia  of 
Mexico  in  March,  1532,  there  is  an  approval  of  expenditures 
"  para  construir  la  casa  de  contratacion  labrada  de  adobes  y 
tejas  en  la  ciudad  de  Vera  Cruz.''  This  casa  was  either  not  com- 
pleted or  its  adobes  very  impermanent,  for  a  cedula  five  years 
later  (July,  1537)  orders  the  justices  of  Vera  Cruz  and  the  depu- 
ties of  the  treasury  to  see  that  a  casa  is  built  as  soon  as  possible.^ 

Queen  Isabella  died  in  November,  1504,  just  after  Columbus' 
return  from  his  last  voyage,  and  it  was  probably  a  short  time 
before  her  death  that  the  two  sovereigns  issued  a  second  series  of 
instructions  to  the  India  House.  There  seems  to  be  no  surviving 
copy;  but  Ferdinand  speaks  of  them  in  a  letter  written  in  the 
summer  of  1509,  directing  the  Casa  to  publish  them  abroad  for 
the  information  of  the  public;  ^  and  their  content  may  be  gathered 
from  a  transcript  which  the  new  factor,  Isasaga,  brought  with 
him  from  the  king  for  that  purpose.  They  were  inscribed  in  an 
abridged  form  on  a  tablet  on  the  walls  of  the  Casa,  probably  in 
the  same  year,  1509.  The  regulations  applied  to  all  who  were  in 
any  way  concerned  with  the  Indies,  whether  as  traders,  ship 
captains,  explorers  or  colonists.  They  included  office  hours  of 
the  officials,  classes  of  prohibited  merchandise,  rules  regarding 
emigration,  mines  and  registration,  and  regulations  for  the  dis- 
posal of  the  property  of  those  dying  en  voyage  or  in  the  Indies. 
They  seem  to  have  been  a  sort  of  resume  of  all  the  dispositions^ 
economic  and  administrative,  made  up  to  that  time  with  regard 
to  Castile's  ultramarine  possessions.^  In  April,  1505,  Ferdinand, 
acting  as  regent  in  the  absence  of  Isabella's  daughter  and  heiress, 
Joanna,  formally  renewed  the  powers  of  the  officers  of  the  Casa.^ 

The  years  1 506-1 507,  in  contrast  with  those  which  immediately 
preceded  and  followed,  were  a  time  of  almost  complete  quiescence 
in  American  legislation,  at  least  so  far  as  it  affected  the  activities 
of  the  India  House.  It  was  also  a  time  of  political  uncertainty 
in  the  peninsula,  when  Joanna  and  her  husband  Philip  came  from 

1  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  x,  p.  379.  ^  Ihid.,  v,  p.  196. 

^  Ihid.,  p.  94.    A  copy  printed  in  the  first  series  (xxxi,  p.  323)  is  dated  wrongly 

1505. 

*  Ihid.,  ist  ser.,  xxxi,  p.  294. 


THE  CAS  A  DE  CONTRATACION  29 

the  Netherlands  to  claim  their  Spanish  heritage,  and  Ferdinand 
unwillingly  retired  to  his  Italian  kingdom  of  Naples.  Philip 
died  within  a  few  months,  however,  and  the  return  of  Ferdinand 
in  the  latter  part  of  1507,  made  it  possible  to  give  to  colonial 
matters  the  attention  their  importance  warranted.  In  the  mean- 
time the  Casa  found  itself  in  conflict  with  the  law  courts  over  its 
claim  of  jurisdiction  in  cases  involving  its  rules,  and  in  collision 
with  the  municipality  over  questions  of  tolls  and  the  privileges  of 
its  officials.  The  colony  on  Hispaniola,  moreover,  was  increasing 
in  size  and  importance,  and  the  vast  extent  of  Spain's  new  do- 
minions becoming  every  day  more  apparent.  From  1508,  there- 
fore, Ferdinand  began  to  intervene  actively  in  the  general  current 
of  American  affairs,  attempting  on  the  one  hand  to  define  the 
Casa's  judicial  powers,  on  the  other  planning  to  issue  a  new  set  of 
ordinances  for  its  guidance  in  the  administration  of  trade.  In 
November,  1509,  he  commanded  the  members  of  the  India  House 
to  send  him  for  examination  a  faithful  copy  of  all  the  rules  and 
instructions  then  in  force;  and  in  February,  15 10,  directed  the 
factor  Isasaga,  as  the  least  occupied  of  the  three,  to  come  to  court 
and  inform  him  by  word  of  mouth  of  things  which  could  not  be 
adequately  discussed  in  writing.^ 

The  new  ordinances,  thirty-six  in  number,  were  issued  from 
Monzon  in  Aragon,  June  15,  15 10,  and  were  amplified  and  ex- 
plained by  seventeen  additional  articles  in  the  following  May.^ 
In  the  main  they  constitute  little  more  than  a  codification  or 
restatement  of  earlier  regulations  and  scattered  decrees.  But 
it  is  significant  that  very  little  is  said  about  commercial  projects 
of  the  Crown,  and  a  great  deal  about  inspection  and  registration 
of  the  ships  and  goods  of  private  traders,  and  the  activities  and 
conduct  of  the  three  officials. 

The  officers  of  the  Casa  were  to  come  together  twice  every 
day  except  holidays,  at  the  hours  lo-ii  and  5-6  in  winter,  and 
9-10  and  5-6  in  summer.  For  nonattendance  without  valid 
excuse  they  were  fined  a  half  real  of  silver,  to  be  devoted  to  the 

*  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  v,  pp.  187,  197.  As  the  royal  factor  was  the  least  occu- 
pied of  the  three  officials,  evidently  the  king's  trade  was  not  very  flourishing. 

2  Ibid.,  ist  ser.,  xxxvi,  p.  296;  xxxix,  p.  191  (dated  March  18);  2d  ser.,  v,  pp. 
211,  250;  Viajes,  ii,  pp.  337,  345. 


30  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

repair  of  their  official  quarters,  and  as  much  again  for  each  day 
of  nonpayment  of  the  fine.  In  public  utterances  as  well  as  in 
letters  to  the  king  they  were  to  speak  in  their  corporate  capacity, 
and  not  as  individuals.  They  must  conduct  all  general  business, 
receive  and  answer  dispatches,  issue  licenses  and  contracts,  etc., 
in  session  together,  and  were  held  jointly  responsible  for  all  the 
acts  of  the  Casa.  In  a  matter  of  doubt  or  disagreement,  if  it  was 
of  importance  and  admitted  of  delay,  they  were  to  confer  with 
the  king;  otherwise  a  majority  vote  was  sufficient  for  a  decision.^ 
Every  important  transaction  had  to  be  countersigned  by  all  three 
officials. 

Rules  were  laid  down  in  minutest  detail  for  the  keeping  of 
ledgers  and  other  records,  not  only  concerning  the  receipt  and 
release  of  royal  treasure  from  America,  but  also  for  the  purchase 
and  accounting  of  artillery,  munitions,  and  ships'  stores  of  every 
sort.  A  transcript  must  be  kept  of  official  communications  pass- 
ing through  the  House  to  the  Indies,  so  that  its  officers  might  be 
conversant  with  all  colonial  affairs;  and  if  there  was  discovered 
in  the  dispatches  anything  prejudicial  to  royal  interests  or  the 
India  trade,  they  must  report  it  at  once  to  the  king.  Officials  in 
America  corresponding  with  the  Crown  about  trade  or  finance 
were  to  send  copies  of  their  letters  to  the  Casa  for  its  enlighten- 
ment; and  thereafter  must  also  forward  to  Seville  complete  ac- 
coimts  of  all  receipts  and  expenditures  of  the  colonial  treasurers 
for  preservation  in  the  Casa's  archives.  It  is  owing  to  this  rule 
that  some  of  the  most  valuable  and  interesting  of  early  Spanish- 
American  records  are  available  for  us  today. 

Regulations  regarding  emigration,  registration  of  cargoes,  in- 
structions for  sea  captains,  etc.,  were  renewed  from  the  earUer 
ordinances  of  1504.  No  shipowner  or  captain  might  freight  for 
the  Indies  until  his  vessel  had  been  examined,  and  its  fitness  and 
tonnage  certified,  by  the  Casa's  officers.  And  any  one  loading 
his  vessel  beyond  the  limit  officially  set  was  liable  to  severe 
penalties.    Gold  brought  from  America  unregistered  or  without 

1  To  prevent  undue  influence  from  the  example  of  the  older  members,  votes 
were  always  cast  in  the  inverse  order  of  seniority.  Veitia  Linaje,  Ub.  i,  cap.  5, 
par.  17. 


THE  CAS  A  DE  CONTRATACION  3 1 

the  royal  stamp/  was  confiscate,  the  smuggler  fined  four  times 
the  amount  seized,  and  his  person  placed  at  the  mercy  of  the 
sovereign.  Any  one  purchasing  such  bulhon,  or  registering  under 
his  name  the  bullion  of  another,  was  subject  to  similar  punish- 
ment. Of  the  treasure  confiscated,  one  third  went  to  the  informer. 
It  is  evident  that  such  practices,  so  notorious  in  later  years  when 
the  shipments  of  treasure  became  very  heavy,  were  already  a 
source  of  difficulty  to  Spanish  authorities. 

It  was  also  provided  in  these  ordinances,  as  in  1504,  that  the 
property  of  persons  dying  in  America  be  carefully  inventoried, 
converted  into  money,  and  forwarded  to  Seville,  to  be  kept  in  a 
special  repository  of  the  Casa  until  the  rightful  heirs  could  be 
found.  The  effects  of  those  dying  at  sea  were  to  be  inventoried 
by  the  "  escribano ''  of  the  vessel,  and  returned  for  similar  dis- 
posal in  Spain.  The  care  which  the  home  government  devoted 
to  the  protection  of  the  estates  of  its  intestate  subjects  in  the  New 
World  continued  to  be  a  characteristic  feature  of  Spanish  ad- 
ministration, and  the  rules  regarding  it  form  some  of  the  most 
important  sections  of  the  Laws  of  the  Indies.^ 

Of  all  these  ordinances,  only  two,  or  at  most  three,  concern 
trade  for  the  profit  of  the  Crown.  The  officials  were  directed,  if 
they  ventured  any  merchandise  in  the  Indies,  to  keep  separate 
account  of  it,  and  send  word  to  the  king  —  a  sufficient  indication 
that  such  trade  was  unusual,  or  at  least  very  slight.  They  were 
also  to  endeavor  to  make  profitable  contracts  with  persons  desir- 
ous of  exploiting  newly-discovered  lands,  subject  to  royal  ap- 
proval.   And  the  importation  of  brazil  or  dye-wood,  forbidden 

1  See  Chapter  VII. 

'  The  records  of  the  Casa,  and  the  sums  entrusted  to  its  care,  were  kept  in  iron 
coffers  provided  with  three  different  locks  and  keys,  one  key  remaining  in  the  pos- 
session of  each  of  the  three  officials.  There  were  four  of  these  coffers:  one  for  the 
preservation  of  correspondence  and  the  official  seal  of  the  institution;  one  for  the 
gold,  silver,  precious  stones,  and  other  royal  revenues  coming  from  the  Indies;  one 
for  the  property  of  deceased  colonists;  and  one  for  unclaimed  money  or  goods  con- 
signed to  private  individuals,  and  property  sequestered  awaiting  the  determination 
of  some  civil  suit.  An  interesting  specimen  of  these  coffers  may  still  be  seen  in  the 
Archivo  de  Indias. 

As  the  receipts  from  America  grew  larger,  such  coffers  were  of  course  insufficient 
to  hold  everything,  and  the  overflow  went  to  the  Atarazanas,  the  Casa's  warehouse, 
to  which  were  attached  three  locks  in  similar  fashion. 


32  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

from  any  region  save  Spanish  America,  they  were  to  take  in 
charge  and  foster  with  the  greatest  diligence. 

The  ordinances  of  1510  do  not  include  all  the  rules  then  in 
force  touching  mercantile  and  political  communications  between 
Spain  and  the  New  World.  For  the  minutiae  of  detail  regarding 
qualifications  of  emigrants,  manner  of  inspecting  vessels  and 
registering  cargoes,  conduct  of  masters  and  pilots,  etc.,  attention 
was  directed  to  various  earlier  pragmatics  and  instructions.  The 
functions  and  general  administration  of  the  Casa,  however,  were 
clearly  defined  by  this  set  of  regulations.  It  gave  to  the  India 
House  the  character  and  complexion  it  was  to  retain  until  the 
eighteenth  century,  made  it  the  institution  which  is  familiar  to 
historians.  Thereafter  the  Casa  de  Contratacion  was  definitely 
not  a  business  house  run  for  the  private  profit  of  the  Crown,  but 
a  department  of  the  government,  a  ministry  of  commerce,  a 
school  of  navigation,  and  a  clearing  house  for  colonial  trade. 

Subsequent  legislation  was  in  most  cases  only  a  logical  and 
necessary  expansion  of  these  rules  of  15 10.  New  decrees  which 
appeared  from  time  to  time  need  not  be  discussed  in  chronologi- 
cal sequence.  Important  regulations  were  issued  in  1534,  1536 
and  1543,  but  they  had  more  to  do  with  the  armament,  provi- 
sioning and  manning  of  ships,  than  with  the  administration  of 
commerce.^  In  1552  were  again  brought  together  all  the  laws 
for  the  India  House  promulgated  up  to  that  time,  not  only  gen- 
eral rules  of  administration,  but  every  regulation  concerning  the 
duties  and  qualifications  of  merchants,  passengers,  masters,  sail- 
ors, bankers,  etc.,  connected  with  the  American  navigation.  In 
November  of  that  year  Hcense  was  granted  to  Andres  de  Carvajal 
to  print  and  sell  copies  of  the  work  for  four  years,  on  presenting 
fifty  to  the  Council  of  the  Indies  and  its  subordinate  tribunals.^ 
It  is  the  most  comprehensive  collection  we  possess  for  the  six- 
teenth century,  was  reprinted  in  Madrid  in  1585,  and  became 
the  basis  of  Book  Nine  of  the  Laws  of  the  Indies.^ 

From  these  ordinances  we  learn  that  the  Casa  possessed  a  pri- 
vate chapel  and  chaplain,*  and  also  in  the  same  building  a  prison, 

^  See  Chapter  XI.  2  a.  de  I.,  139.  i.  10,  lib.  22,  fol.  453. 

2  The  edition  of  1585  is  in  the  Harvard  Library. 

*  The  chapel  of  the  Casa  de  Contratacidn  was  established  and  endowed  by  the 


THE  CASA  DE  CONTRATACI6N  33 

and  a  prison  keeper  who  discharged  all  the  functions  of  common 
janitor.  The  office  hours  were  considerably  longer,  every  morn- 
ing from  7  to  10  in  summer  and  8  to  1 1  in  winter,  and  on  Monday, 
Wednesday  and  Friday  afternoons  after  3  in  winter  and  5  in 
summer.^  On  the  other  hand,  each  of  the  three  officials,  treasurer, 
contador,  and  factor,  had  now  the  assistance  of  deputies  and  clerks, 
for  the  keeping  of  books,  inspection  of  ships,  making  out  of  regis- 
ters, issue  of  licenses,  and  in  fact  for  the  performance  of  every 
important  duty  assigned  to  the  Casa.  In  other  words,  the  India 
House  already  by  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  had  ex- 
panded into  an  elaborately  organized  institution,  the  original 
officers  being  the  executive  heads  of  departments,  and  enjoying 
honors,  privileges  and  exemptions  as  high  as  those  of  the  supreme 
courts  and  chancelleries  of  the  realm.^  Nothing  might  be  sent  to 

Spanish  kings  for  the  celebration  of  masses  for  the  souls  of  those  who  died  on  the 
India  voyages.  Veitia  Linaje  says  in  one  place  that  there  was  such  a  chapel  from 
the  very  beginning  (lib.  i,  cap.  36,  par.  i);  in  another  that  the  post  of  first  chap- 
lain was  created  in  1550  (lib.  i,  cap.  15,  par.  11).  A  second  chaplain  was  added  in 
1622.  The  first  was  a  nominee  of  the  Crown,  and  after  1644  of  the  Count  of  Cast- 
rillo,  who  in  that  year  was  appointed  hereditary  "  alcaide  juez  oficial "  of  the 
Casa.  The  patronage  of  the  second  chaplaincy  was  vested  in  the  president  and 
three  ofl&cials. 

1  The  afternoon  sessions  were  for  the  issuing  of  licenses  to  merchants  and  pas- 
sengers. Later,  when  annual  fleets  became  the  rule,  while  the  fleet  was  preparing 
the  oflacials  were  busy  at  all  hours  of  the  day,  even  on  holidays  or  at  Easter!  More- 
over, for  the  receipt  and  answering  of  royal  dispatches  they  were  apt  to  be  called 
together  at  any  time  of  day  or  night.  Because  of  these  extraordinary  hours,  when 
there  was  no  special  business  the  afternoon  rule  was  not  observed. 

In  the  early  years  of  the  Casa,  when  there  were  only  the  three  oflBcials, 
none  could  obtain  leave  of  absence  without  securing  royal  permission  and  leaving 
an  approved  deputy  in  his  place.  In  the  seventeenth  century,  when  the  Casa  was 
more  elaborately  organized,  the  president  could  grant  thirty  days'  leave  to  any  of 
its  officers  without  requiring  a  deputy.     Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  4,  par.  11,  12. 

2  Veitia  Linaje  believes  that  each  of  the  three  officials  had  from  the  begin- 
ning a  deputy  or  "  oficial  mayor,"  to  take  charge  of  the  routine  peculiar  to  his  par- 
ticular office  or  department.  No  early  ordinance  to  that  effect  survives,  although 
the  first  treasurer,  Matienzo,  seems  to  have  had  an  assistant  at  the  time  of  his 
death  in  1522,  his  nephew  Domingo  de  Ochandiano,  who  was  temporarily  ap- 
pointed to  his  uncle's  place.  Whatever  the  date  of  origin,  from  a  very  early  time 
there  were  three  oficiales  mayores,  superior  in  rank  to  any  other  employees  of 
the  Casa.  According  to  the  ordinances  of  1552,  the  contador's  office  already  had 
four  other  chief  clerks,  to  look  after  the  registers,  "  bienes  de  difuntos,"  passengers, 
and  sequestered  or  unclaimed  moneys. 


34  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

the  Indies  without  the  consent  of  the  Casa,  nothing  might  be 
brought  back  and  landed,  either  on  the  account  of  merchants  or 
of  the  king  himself,  without  its  authorization.  Bullion  from  the 
colonies  consigned  to  Spanish  merchants  belonged  to  them  only 
when  the  Casa  permitted  its  release.  It  controlled  and  regulated 
the  character  of  ships,  crews,  and  passengers.  In  short,  it  saw  to 
the  execution  of  all  the  laws  and  ordinances  relating  to  trade  and 
navigation  with  America.  As  it  received  all  the  revenues  remitted 
by  colonial  officials,  it  was  becoming  one  of  the  principal  outposts 
of  the  royal  exchequer,  and  its  archives  one  of  the  richest  in  his- 
torical interest  in  Spain. ^  As  a  consultative  body,  it  had  the  right 
to  propose  to  the  king  anything  it  deemed  necessary  to  the  organ- 
ization and  extension  of  American  commerce.  Its  officers  or  their 
deputies  or  servants  were  strictly  forbidden  to  trade  with  the 
Indies,  directly  or  indirectly,  openly  or  in  secret,  on  pain  of  heavy 
fines,  forfeitures,  and  loss  of  ofi&ce.^  They  might  not  receive  gifts, 
write  letters  of  recommendation,  or  sell  licenses  for  the  embarking 
of  persons  or  goods  prohibited  by  the  statutes. 

One  officer,  not  mentioned  in  the  code  of  1552,  had  in  the  mean- 
time been  added  to  the  Casa's  staff.  In  May,  15 14,  had  been 
created  a  postmaster-general  (correo  mayor)  for  colonial  dis- 
patches, and  Dr.  Galindez  de  Carvajal,  a  distinguished  jurist  and 
member  of  the  Council  of  Castile,  was  appointed  to  the  new 
dignity.  In  the  beginning  the  correo  mayor  looked  after  thai 
transmission,  not  only  of  letters  between  Spain  and  the  Indies, 
but  also  of  intercolonial  posts  and  of  those  between  Seville  and  the 
Court.  His  supervision  over  trans-Atlantic  mails,  however, 
whether  official  or  private,  continued  only  a  short  time.  Per- 
haps at  most  it  had  amounted  to  Httle  more  than  the  collection 
of  a  fee. 

^  After  1 59 1,  the  treasurer,  factor,  and  contador,  as  oflEicials  of  the  exchequer, 
on  entering  office  had  each  to  give  bond  for  30,000  ducats  to  the  royal  Audiencia  of 
Seville.  In  case  of  defalcation,  the  bondsmen  of  the  treasurer  were  first  held  liable, 
and  afterwards  those  of  the  factor  and  contador.  The  "  oficial  mayor  "  of  the 
treasurer  had  to  give  bond  to  his  superior  for  10,000  ducats.  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i, 
cap.  II,  par.  2,  3. 

2  The  penalty  was  confiscation  of  the  goods  involved  and  loss  of  half  of  one's 
property.  In  1591  it  was  changed  to  dismissal  for  the  principal  officers,  and  for 
subordinates  ten  years'  banishment  from  the  kingdom.   Ibid.,  lib.  i,  cap.  4,  par.  13. 


THE  CAS  A  DE  CONTRATACION  35 

The  heirs  of  Carvajal  exercised  the  Spanish  functions  of  this 
office  till  1627,  when  D.  Fernando  de  Medina  sold  it  to  the  Count- 
Duke  of  OHvares.  And  soon  after,  the  king  permitted  the  new 
incumbent,  his  favorite  and  chief  minister,  to  collect  a  fee  on  all 
outgoing  mail  to  the  Indies.  In  1633  the  Count-Duke  resold  the 
office  in  perpetuity  to  the  Count  of  Onate,  for  10,000  ducats  in 
silver.  Oiiate  was  already  correo  mayor  for  the  Spanish  king- 
doms. The  office  was  served  by  a  deputy  in  Seville,  who  appar- 
ently resided  in  the  Casa  de  Contratacion,  and  on  presentation  by 
the  proprietor,  took  oath  as  one  of  the  subordinates  of  the  institu- 
tion. The  family  of  Carvajal  seems  to  have  retained  control  of 
some  of  the  South  American  posts  till  1768.^ 

Such  was  the  character  of  the  India  House  as  an  administrative 
institution  at  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Charles  V.  Its  functions  were 
clearly  determined,  and  its  place  in  the  political  economy  of  the 
Spanish  monarchy  justified  by  fifty  years  of  continuous  and 
efficient  service.  The  Crown  had  never  ceased  to  consider  it  an 
object  of  especial  solicitude,  had  consolidated  its  powers,  and 
maintained  its  independence  of  other  authorities  in  the  kingdom. 
Changes  introduced  in  succeeding  reigns  concerned  chiefly  the 
elaboration  of  its  personnel.  In  all  essentials  the  Casa  de  Contra- 
tacion was  complete  when  the  ageing  Emperor  decided  to  lay 
aside  a  heavy  crown  and  retire  to  end  his  days  in  the  monastery  of 
Yuste. 

In  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  Casa  also  de- 
veloped a  Hydrographic  Bureau  and  School  of  Navigation,  the 
earfiest  and  most  important  in  the  history  of  modem  Europe.  At 
its  head  was  a  pilot  major  (piloto  mayor),  whose  office  was 
created  apparently  in  the  early  part  of  1508,  and  first  bestowed 
upon  Americo  Vespucci.  Two  cedulas  of  March  22,  1508,  as- 
signed to  Vespucci  as  pilot  major  50,000  maravedis  salary,  and 
25,000  more  annually  for  "ayudadecosta."^  It  was  at  about  that 
time  that  Ferdinand  the  Catholic,  just  returned  to  Castile  after 

1  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  32;  Solorzano,  PolUica  Indiana,  lib.  ii,  cap.  14;  Moses, 
Spanish  Dependencies  in  South  America,  i,  pp.  388-391. 

2  Viajes,  iii,  pp.  297  f .  The  instructions  to  Vespucci  are  dated  August  6.  Ibid., 
p.  299. 


36  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

the  death  of  his  son-in-law,  Philip  I,  called  to  the  Court  at  Burgos 
Juan  Diaz  de  Solis,  Vicente  Yanez  Pinzon,  Juan  de  la  Cosa  and 
Americo  Vespucci,  to  confer  on  the  furtherance  of  maritime  enter- 
prise in  the  western  seas,  which  had  virtually  ceased  during  the 
unsettled  conditions  of  Philip's  short  reign.  It  was  resolved  that 
an  expedition  be  sent  to  seek  a  passage  to  the  East "  a  la  parte  del 
Norte  hacia  Occidente,"  a  quest  on  which  Pinzon  and  De  Solis  set 
out  a  few  months  later.  And  probably  at  this  same  conference  it 
was  decided  that  one  of  the  four  should  remain  in  Seville  to  con- 
struct charts  of  the  American  discoveries,  and  teach  and  examine 
pilots  for  the  navigation  to  the  New  World. ^ 

The  India  House  also  very  early  retained  the  services  of  other 
experienced  mariners  to  assist  the  pilot  major  in  his  various  func- 
tions. De  Solis,  Pinzon  and  Juan  de  la  Cosa  apparently  received 
stipends  from  the  Casa  as  royal  pilots  at  the  time  they  were 
making  their  voyages  of  exploration  along  the  American  coasts. 
Pinzon  and  De  la  Cosa,  indeed,  had  been  entrusted  with  carto- 
graphical labors  by  the  Casa  before  1508,  although  "pilotos 
reales  ''  as  such  seem  to  have  been  first  appointed  in  that  year. 
In  15 1 2  Andres  de  San  Martin  and  Juan  Vespucci,  nephew  of 
Americo,  were  added  to  the  number;  and  in  15 15  there  were  at 
least  eight,  including  in  addition  to  the  two  just  mentioned,  Juan 
Serrano,  Andres  Garcia  Nino,  Francisco  Cotto,  Francisco  de 
Torres,  Vasco  Gallego  and  Sebastian  Cabot.  Cabot  received  his 
first  appointment  as  pilot  in  that  year,  although  he  had  entered 
the  service  of  Ferdinand  ini5i2.2  Ini5i9  Nuno  Garcia  Torreiio 
was  given  the  title  of  "  maestro  de  hacer  cartas,"  and  Diego 
Ribero  that  of  "  cosmographo  y  maestro  de  hacer  cartas  "  in 
1523.  Presumably  "  maestro  de  hacer  cartas  "  was  in  the  begin- 
ning almost  synonymous  with  cosmographer,  the  principal  duty 
being  that  of  chart  making.  But  very  shortly  the  cosmographers 
began  to  give  their  attention  also  to  the  manufacture  and  im- 
provement of  nautical  instruments.  And  as  both  Nuiio  Garcia 
and  Ribero  are  in  other  connections  referred  to  merely  as  pilots, 

^  Puente  y  Olea,  Los  trabajos  geogrdficos  de  la  Casa  de  la  Contratacion,  pp.  60-63. 

2  Viajes,  iii,  pp.  306,  307;  Harrisse,  John  Cabot,  p.  154.  It  is  possible,  as  Har- 
risse  suggests  {ibid.,  p.  277),  that  these  appointments  had  to  be  renewed  every 
year. 


THE  CAS  A  DE  CONTRATACION  37 

they  were  doubtless  navigators  of  practical  experience  as  well  as 
skilled  in  hydrography.  The  title  of  pilot,  however,  which  per- 
sists for  some  time  in  the  early  history  of  the  Casa,  becomes  in 
that  connection  slightly  misleading;  for  many  of  these  mariners 
never  navigated  again  after  their  appointment  at  Seville,  and 
were  really  rather  geographers  than  pilots.  And  later  in  the 
century,  cosmographer  is  the  only  title  employed. 

Americo  Vespucci,  the  first  pilot  major,  died  in  Seville,  Feb- 
ruary 22,1512,  and  on  March  2  5  Juan  Diaz  de  Solis  was  appointed 
in  his  place.^  In  15 16  De  Solis  was  killed  by  Indians  on  the  banks 
of  the  Rio  de  la  Plata,  which  he  was  exploring  in  search  of  a  pas- 
sage to  the  East  Indies;  and  there  was  an  interim  of  two  years, 
till  February  5,  15 18,  when  the  vacant  post  was  bestowed  by 
Charles  on  Sebastian  Cabot,  just  after  the  new  king's  arrival  in 
Spain.  Cabot  has  been  made  out  by  Harrisse  to  have  been  some- 
what of  an  imposter,  if  not  worse;  but  although  engaged  in  trai- 
torous correspondence  with  the  Venetian  Council  of  Ten  in  1522- 
23,  although  sentenced  in  1532  to  four  years  banishment  in  the 
African  penal  settlement  of  Oran,  because  of  misconduct  during 
his  voyage  to  La  Plata,  and  although  later  accused  of  irregulari- 
ties in  his  office  of  pilot  major,  he  apparently  had  so  firm  a  hold 
on  the  confidence  and  esteem  of  the  Emperor,  that  he  retained  his 
post  till  1548,  when  he  finally  deserted  Spanish  service  for  the  pay 
of  England.2 

Alonso  de  Chaves,  who  became  pilot  major  in  1552,  continued 
in  that  capacity  till  1586,  when  he  had  reached  the  advanced  age 
of  ninety-four.  And  as  Alonso  was  a  pilot  and  cosmographer  in 
the  time  of  Cabot,  and  in  fact  one  of  those  chosen  to  examine 

1  A  pension  of  10,000  maravedis  was  settled  on  the  widow  of  Vespucci,  deducted 
from  the  salary  of  his  successors.     Viajes,  iii,  pp.  305,  308. 

2  Harrisse  says  {pp.  cit.,  p.  271),  in  part  following  Herrera,  that  when  Cabot  left 
Spain  for  the  Moluccas  in  1526,  the  Emperor  continued  him  in  his  office,  which  in 
his  absence  was  to  be  filled,  at  least  so  far  as  examining  pilots  was  concerned,  by 
Miguel  Garcia  and  Juan  Vespucci.  In  1527  it  was  entrusted  to  Diego  Ribero  and 
Alonso  de  Chaves,  and  in  1528  the  latter  alone  became  pilot  major  ad  interim. 
This  *  Miguel  Garcia,'  however,  was  really  Nuno  Garcia  Torreno,  and  Alonso  de 
Chaves  was  not  appointed  pilot  major  tiU  1552,  although  late  in  1528  he  had  re- 
ceived royal  permission  to  read  lectures  on  navigation  in  the  house  of  Fernando 
Columbus.    See  Puente  y  Olea,  op.  cit.,  pp.  256,  310,  313. 


3  8  TRADE  AND  NA  VIGA  TION 

pilots  in  the  latter's  absence  in  America,  he  must  have  carried  the 
tradition  of  the  first  American  explorers  almost  to  the  threshold 
of  the  seventeenth  century. 

Before  the  death  of  Charles  V,  the  instruction  of  mariners  was 
given  over  to  a  professor  of  cosmography,  leaving  to  the  pilot 
major  only  the  task  of  final  examination,  with  a  general  super- 
vision over  map  and  instrument  making  whether  within  the  Casa 
or  by  individuals  outside.  The  chair  in  cosmography  was  insti- 
tuted by  Prince  Philip,  then  governing  Spain  for  his  absent  father, 
in  December,  1552,  and  the  first  incumbent  was  Jeronimo  de 
Chaves,  son  of  Alonso.  In  the  seventeenth  century,  there  were 
only  two  cosmographers  attached  to  the  Casa,  the  "  catedratico  '' 
or  professor,  and  the  "  f  abricador  "  or  map  and  instrument  maker. ^ 

In  the  early  years  of  American  exploration,  a  few  foreigners  of 
distinction,  men  generally  combining  with  nautical  training  some 
scientific  attainments  which  rendered  their  services  particularly 
desirable  to  the  Spanish  Crown,  were  drawn  into  its  pay  with  the 
title  of  naval  captain,  "  capitan  de  mar,"  their  salaries  being 
settled  upon  the  Casa  de  Contratacion.  Such  a  distinction  was 
conferred  on  Sebastian  Cabot  in  October,  15 12,  and  on  Magellan 
and  his  collaborator,  Rui  Falero,  six  years  later.  In  each  case  the 
stipend  from  the  Casa  was  50,000  maravedis.  Francisco,  the 
brother  of  Rui  Falero,  for  many  years  drew  a  pension  from  the 
same  source,  first  of  35,000  maravedis  and  after  1532  of  50,000, 
probably  to  retain  his  services  as  a  mathematician,  for  he  pub- 
lished at  Seville  a  Tratado  de  la  esfera  y  del  arte  de  marear  con 
el  regimiento  de  las  alturas,  in  1535.^  It  is  interesting  to  note,  in 
connection  with  the  Spaniards'  efforts  to  exclude  foreigners,  and 
especially  Portuguese,  from  the  American  navigation,  that  so 
many  of  these  early  mariners  were  of  foreign  birth.  Vespucci  was 

1  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  11,  par.  15,  16. 

There  was  also  a  "  cosm6grapho-cronista  "  attached  to  the  Council  of  the  Indies, 
whose  duty  it  was  to  record,  not  only  the  natural  and  political  history  of  the  Indies, 
but  also  geographical  and  astronomical  data,  as  well  as  to  make  a  collection  of  the 
accounts  of  voyages  and  sailing  routes  brought  back  to  Spain  by  mariners  from  the 
New  World.  Later  these  duties  were  divided  between  two  persons,  a  cosmographer 
major  and  a  chronicler  royal. 

2  Nicolis  Antonio,  Bibliotheca  Hispana  Nova,  i,  p.  423. 


THE  CASA  DE  CONTRATACION  39 

of  course  a  Florentine.  Sebastian  Cabot  was  bom  in  Bristol  or 
more  likely  in  Venice.  Ribero  (or  Ribeiro)  was  a  Portuguese,  as 
were  Magellan,  the  Faleros  (or  Faleiros)  and  many  others.  In- 
deed Portugal  seems  still  to  have  furnished  the  most  cosmopoli- 
tan and  competent  mariners  for  distant  enterprise,  whether  to  the 
East  or  to  the  West.  It  also,  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries,  possessed  a  pilot  major,  and  required  examinations  in 
nautical  proficiency. 

The  nautical  school  at  Seville  was  for  a  long  time  the  object  of 
admiration  by  visitors  from  the  north  of  Europe.  When  the  cele- 
brated English  navigator,  Stephen  Borough,  was  in  Seville  in 
1558,  the  Spaniards,  as  he  afterwards  told  Hakluyt,  "  tooke  him 
into  the  cotractation  house  at  their  admitting  of  masters  and 
pilots,  giving  him  great  honour,  and  presented  him  with  a  payre 
of  perfumed  gloves  worth  fi\t  or  six  Ducates."  And  Borough, 
soon  after  his  return,  drew  up  a  document  setting  forth : 

Three  especiall  causes  and  consideracons  amongst  others  whether  the 
ofi5ce  of  Pilott  maior  ys  allowed  and  estemed  in  Spayne,  Portugale,  and 
other  places  where  navigacon  flourisheth. 

Probably  as  a  consequence,  in  January,  1563,  Borough  was  ap- 
pointed chief  pilot  and  one  of  the  four  masters  of  the  Queen's 
ships  in  the  Medway.  It  hardly  admits  of  doubt  that  the  object  in 
view  in  creating  the  office  of  chief  pilot  was  emulation  of  the 
Spaniards  —  the  instruction  and  examination  of  Enghsh  mari- 
ners in  the  science  and  practice  of  navigation.  But  as  there  was 
no  other  machinery  for  carr5dng  it  into  effect,  such  as  existed  in 
the  Casa  de  Contratacion,  it  was  soon  lost  sight  of,  and  the  office 
of  chief  pilot  allowed  to  lapse. ^ 

So  far  the  India  House  has  been  discussed  in  its  aspects  as  a 
comcmercial  and  nautical  bureau.  It  was  something  more,  it 
was  a  court  of  law.  In  the  original  instructions  of  1503  no  men- 
tion is  made  of  judicial  powers,  and  no  later  decrees  survive  which 
confer  such  powers.  Veitia  Linaje  himself  is  entirely  in  the  dark 
as  to  their  origin,  although,  being  an  interested  party,  he  affirms 
that  the  Casa  possessed  them  from  the  very  beginning.  An 
^  Dictionary  oj  National  Biography y  art.  "  Stephen  Borough." 


40  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

ordinance  issued  in  Joanna's  name  in  1508  refers  to  judicial 
authority  (jurisdiccion)  as  having  been  granted  by  her  royal  par- 
ents after  the  first  discoveries  to  those  in  charge  of  Indian  affairs, 
including  later  the  members  of  the  Casa  de  Contratacion.^  It  is 
true  that  Columbus  as  admiral  and  viceroy  possessed  a  judicial 
competence  of  a  vague  sort;  but  it  was  exercised  chiefly  in  the 
appointment  of  colonial  ofl&cials.^  In  the  commissions  issued  to 
Fonseca  nothing  is  said  of  a  "  jurisdiccion  "  over  the  matters  with 
which  he  was  entrusted.  It  seems,  however,  from  the  general 
tenor  of  later  decrees,  that  the  members  of  the  Casa  very  early  sat 
as  a  court  upon  cases  involving  infractions  of  its  regulations,  or 
disputes  between  merchants  and  mariners  engaged  in  the  India 
trade.  They  constituted  a  civil  tribunal  similar  to  the  "  consula- 
dos  "  of  Spanish  merchants  in  Burgos,  Barcelona  and  other  cities. 
What  means  they  had  of  enforcing  their  decisions  does  not  appear. 
Nor  is  it  likely  that  they  possessed  much,  if  any,  criminal  jurisdic- 
tion. They  probably  depended  upon  the  mimicipal  authorities  to 
execute  their  mandates,  and  left  criminal  actions  to  the  ordinary 
courts.  It  was  not  long  before  such  a  division  of  jurisdiction 
caused  friction  between  the  Casa  and  the  city,  as  is  evident  from 
two  letters  of  the  summer  of  1504.  In  one  Ferdinand  denies  the 
request  of  the  Casa  for  a  judge  to  take  charge  of  "  las  cosas  de  las 
armadas."  In  the  other,  of  the  same  date,  addressed  to  the  Count 
of  Cifuentes,  Asistente  or  chief  justice  of  Seville,  he  orders  the 
count  to  see  that  in  the  future  all  law-suits  touching  the  armadas 
and  pending  before  him,  his  deputies  or  any  other  magistrates  of 
the  city,  be  disposed  of  as  expeditiously  as  possible.^ 

Bickerings  and  vexation  between  the  two  sets  of  authorities 
continued  for  many  years.  Not  only  did  the  ordinary  justices 
issue  injunctions  to  restrain  the  Casa,  but  other  officers  of  the  city 
interfered  with  its  activities,  endeavoring  to  levy  toll  on  wine  and 
other  articles  brought  there  for  outfitting  the  fleets  or  for  trans- 
portation to  America.  Merchants  importimed  the  king  for  relief, 
and  even  proctors  from  Hispaniola  complained  that  because  of 

*  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  v,  p.  146. 

2  Viajes,  ii,  pp.  9,  57. 

'  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xxxi,  pp.  242,  248. 


THE  CAS  A  DE  CONTRATACION  4I 

these  impediments  the  islanders  were  often  in  want  of  supplies.* 
Apparently  in  the  spring  of  1508  Ferdinand  had  decided  to  re- 
move the  Casa  from  Seville  altogether,  when  protests  from  the 
citizens  caused  him  to  suspend  his  decision  until  the  two  parties 
had  time  to  compose  their  differences  and  report  to  him.^  In  the 
following  July  a  decree  issued  over  Joanna^s  name  confirmed  all 
former  judicial  powers  of  the  Casa,  and  ordered  the  asistente  and 
other  judges  in  no  manner  or  form  to  interfere  with  it.^ 

Yet  through  1509  and  15 10,  as  the  business  of  the  House  in- 
creased, the  disputes  persisted,  until  finally  in  September,  151 1, 
the  Crown  issued  a  general  proclamation  defining  exactly  certain 
categories  of  the  new  jurisdiction.  It  was  extended  to  all  law- 
suits involving  contracts  or  partnerships  in  American  commerce, 
insurance  or  freights,  procedure  to  be  governed  by  the  rules  and 
customs  of  the  consulado  of  Burgos.  In  all  cases  of  barratry  the 
Casa  was  to  have  complete  authority,  both  civil  and  criminal,  the 
criminal  sentences  to  be  executed  by  the  king's  ordinary  justices 
of  Seville  or  elsewhere.  Persons  arrested  by  order  of  the  Casa  were 
to  be  lodged  in  the  public  prison  where  the  arrest  was  made,  sub- 
ject to  the  Casa's  disposition.  Finally,  if  necessary,  officers  of  the 
Casa  in  their  judicial  capacity  might  impress  carpenters,  smiths, 
calkers,  and  other  workmen  to  repair  and  fit  vessels  for  the  Ameri- 
can navigation,  paying  them  the  wages  justly  due  them.'*  Al- 
though not  specified  in  this  decree,  it  seems  that  appeals  were 
taken  to  the  royal  justices  of  Seville.  The  Council  of  the  Indies 
had  not  yet  been  created. 

So,  as  the  House  justified  its  existence  with  the  growth  of  the 
Indies,  its  jurisdiction  was  put  on  a  more  precise  basis.  Its  three 

*  Complaints  of  interference  against  the  municipal  authorities  are  heard  again 
in  1530, 1538  and  1557.  A.  de  I.,  Patr.  2.  5. 1/6,  ramos  26,  38;  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i, 
cap.  2,  par.  8. 

*  Colecc.  de  dec,  2d  ser.,  v,  pp.  161-164. 

'  Ibid.,  p.  146;  A.  de  I.,  Patr.  2.  5.  1/6,  ramo  3. 

*  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  v,  j^.  247,  299-303;  A.  de  I.,  139.  i.  4,  lib.  3,  fol.  165. 
The  Casa  de  Contrataci6n  in  some  of  its  judicial  functions,  especially  later  when 

its  powers  were  more  comprehensive,  replaced  the  Admirals  of  Castile  and  their 
court  of  the  Almirantazgo.  This  court,  established  in  Seville  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  had  till  then  entire  jurisdiction  in  maritime  matters.  As  we  have  seen, 
the  Casa  in  1503  was  set  up  in  the  very  quarters  occupied  by  the  Admiral's  depart- 
ment. 


42  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

members  were  thereafter  referred  to  as  "  jueces  oficiales."  At 
about  the  same  time  we  hear  of  a  secretary  for  civil  and  criminal 
suits,  and  in  the  ordinances  of  June,  1510,  read  of  one  or  more 
"letrados"  of  the  Casa,  lawyers  employed  to  aid  its  officials  in  the 
capacity  of  legal  counsellors.^  Yet  in  after  years,  in  15 18,  in  1530, 
and  as  late  as  1619,  the  Crown  was  compelled  to  intervene  and 
warn  the  Seville  judiciary  not  to  meddle  with  the  privileges  of  the 
Casa  or  its  members.^  Similar  admonitions  had  to  be  sent  to  the 
royal  judges  in  Cadiz  after  the  establishment  there  of  the  Juzgado 
de  Indias  in  1535.^ 

It  was  left  to  the  Emperor,  however,  by  the  definite  formation 
of  a  Council  of  the  Indies  in  August,  1524,^  and  by  the  further  ex- 
tension of  the  judicial  competence  of  the  Casa  de  Contratacion, 
to  make  the  political  and  juridical  control  of  American  affairs 
entirely  independent  of  any  authority  in  the  state  save  the  king. 
To  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Casa  he  gave  final  shape  in  laws  issued 
on  the  advice  of  his  chief  ministers,  Francisco  de  los  Cobos  and  the 
cardinal  archbishops  of  Toledo  and  Seville,  in  the  summer  of 
1539.^  They  were  included  in  the  collection  of  ordinances  of  the 
India  House  published  in  1552,  and  remained  the  basis  of  all  later 
enactments.  All  civil  suits  involving  the  royal  exchequer  or  rules 
governing  American  trade  and  navigation,  were  to  be  heard 
by  the  Casa  alone,  without  interference  from  any  ordinary  court, 
and  with  appeal  (in  cases  involving  40,000  maravedis  or  over) 
directly  to  the  Council  of  the  Indies.^  Other  suits  between  private 

^  A.  de  I.,  41.  6. 1/24,  lib.  i,  fol.  69  v°;  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  v,  p.  220. 

There  seem  to  have  been  generally  two  letrados  attached  to  the  Casa. 

2  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  ix,  p.  88;  x,  p.  11;  Herrera,  dec.  ii,  lib.  3,  cap.  8;  Veitia 
Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  7,  par.  28. 

'  Colecc  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  x,  p.  370:  cedula  of  June  2,  1537. 

^  Sol6rzano,  PolUica  Indiana,  lib.  v,  cap.  15. 

^  Colecc  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  x,  p.  453;  A.  de  I.,  Patr.  2.  5.  1/6,  ramo  39. 

D.  Juan  Tavera,  archbishop  of  Toledo,  was  president  of  the  Council  of  Castile; 
D.  Francisco  Garcia  de  Loaysa,  archbishop  of  Seville,  was  president  of  the  Council 
of  the  Indies. 

«  The  transfer  of  appeals  from  the  justices  of  Seville  to  the  Council  of  the 
Indies  was  probably  introduced  much  earlier,  at  the  time  of  the  creation  of  that 
Council. 

There  were  four  solicitors  (procuradores) ,  all  royal  nominees,  attached  to  the 
Casa,  to  whom  exclusively  was  given  charge  of  civil  suits  brought  before  it.    One  of 


THE  CAS  A  DE  CONTRATACION  43 

parties  relating  to  the  Indies  might  be  tried  either  by  the  Casa  or 
by  the  ordinary  justices,  the  choice  lying  with  the  plaintiff.  In 
civil  cases  unconnected  with  the  Indies  the  Casa  was  to  have  no 
part  or  jurisdiction  whatsoever. 

In  criminal  matters  it  was  given  an  absolute  competence  over 
all  infractions  of  its  ordinances,  and  over  crimes  under  the 
common  law  committed  on  the  voyage  to  or  from  America.  Its 
authority  began  the  moment  passengers  and  crews  embarked  and 
the  cargo  was  put  on  board,  and  it  ended  only  when  the  vessel 
returned  and  disembarkation  was  complete.  If  the  sentence 
involved  death  or  mutilation,  however,  the  prisoner  and  his  case 
after  trial  by  the  Casa,  were  to  be  delivered  for  review  to  the 
Council  of  the  Indies.  If  the  consequences  of  a  misdeed  appeared 
only  after  the  voyage  was  finished  and  the  passengers  and  cargo 
dispersed,  it  was  left  to  the  injured  party  to  decide  from  which 
jurisdiction  he  would  seek  reparation.^  By  this  decree,  moreover, 
the  execution  of  criminal  judgments  was  left  entirely  in  the  hands 
of  the  Casa  itself  .^ 

A  few  years  later  the  civil  competence  of  the  Casa  was  some- 
what restricted  by  the  erection  in  Seville  of  a  consulado  or  gild  of 
the  merchants  interested  in  the  American  trade.  In  August, 
1543,  in  response  to  a  petition  from  these  merchants  for  an  asso- 
ciation similar  to  the  gilds  of  Burgos,  Valencia  and  other  commer- 
cial cities,  the  Emperor  published  an  ordinance  directing  them  to 
gather  in  the  Casa  de  Contratacion  on  the  second  day  of  each  year 
to  elect  from  among  their  own  number  a  Prior  and  two  Consuls. 
These  officials  were  to  take  charge  of  virtually  all  the  civil  pleas, 

them  also  acted  as  proctor  for  the  poor.  Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1552,  no.  88;  Veitia 
Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  28,  par.  22,  24. 

^  Except  suits  between  owners  of  ships,  masters,  pilots,  or  sailors,  which  were 
under  all  circumstances  reserved  to  the  Casa. 

*  In  January,  1526,  a  royal  order  was  addressed  to  the  archbishop  of  Seville  to 
the  effect  that  right  of  asylum  in  Spanish  churches  could  not  be  respected  when  its 
protection  was  sought  by  those  who  had  broken  rules  respecting  American  trade. 
There  had  been  several  cases  of  men  who  embezzled  money  sent  from  the  Indies  in 
their  care,  or  smuggled  gold  and  silver  on  which  the  Quinto  had  not  been  paid,  and 
who  had  sought  asylum  in  the  churches  and  monasteries  in  and  about  Seville.  Such 
fugitives  were  lodged  in  the  prison  of  the  Casa,  though  security  was  given  that 
there  would  be  no  criminal  proceedings.  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  ix,  p.  237. 


44  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

including  proceedings  in  bankruptcy,  arising  out  of  the  India 
traffic,  pleas  which  till  then  had  gone  to  the  Casa.^  With  the 
expansion  of  trade,  such  commercial  lawsuits  had  naturally  in- 
creased, the  Casa  was  choked  with  business,  and  there  were 
endless  delays.  The  procedure  of  the  prior  and  consuls  was  much 
simpler,  shorter  and  more  direct,  and  there  were  none  of  the  dis- 
tractions of  lawyers  and  lawyers'  fees.  Legal  briefs  were  forbidden 
imder  all  circumstances.  If  the  disputants  disagreed  with  the 
decision,  an  officer  selected  annually  by  the  king  (known  as  the 
"  juez  de  alzadas")  and  two  merchants  reviewed  the  case.  If  the 
judgment  was  upheld,  there  was  no  further  appeal.  If  it  was 
revoked,  there  was  another  hearing  with  two  other  merchants, 
and  their  decision  was  final.  Execution  was  left  to  the  constables 
of  the  Casa. 

By  virtue  of  this  first  decree,  the  prior  and  consuls  might  draw 
up  a  body  of  rules  and  ordinances,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the 
Council  of  the  Indies.  This  was  done  in  cooperation  with  Dr. 
Hernan  Perez,  member  of  the  Coimcil,  and  the  ordinances  pub- 
lished by  Philip  II  in  July,  1556.2  They  deal  chiefly  with  the 
qualifications  and  election  of  officers.  The  prior  and  consuls 
were  to  be  assisted  by  five  deputies,  and  the  retiring  officials  of  one 
year  were  to  act  as  advisers  of  those  of  the  next.  They  were  per- 
mitted to  have  a  permanent  legal  counsel  or  "  asesor,"  and  to  keep 
an  agent  and  counsel  at  court  to  represent  their  interests  before 
the  Coimcil  of  the  Indies.  From  time  to  time  numerous  other 
officials  were  added  to  the  Consulado,  receivers  of  rents  and  tolls, 
auditors,  a  secretary,  and  an  "  alguacil ''  or  constable  to  enforce 
mandates  formerly  left  to  the  constable  of  the  Casa.^  There  were 
unsuccessful  attempts  in  the  seventeenth  century  to  make  the 
Consulado  more  oligarchical,  by  lengthening  the  term  of  the  prior 
and  consuls,  or  by  confining  the  choice  to  permanent  electors 
consisting  of  former  priors  and  consuls  and  the  officers  of  the 

1  A.  de  I.,  148.  2.  4,  lib.  8,  fol.  242.  After  1588  the  prior  and  only  one  consul 
were  chosen  each  year,  every  consul  serving  two  years  in  order  to  insure  a  conti- 
nuity of  policy.  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  17,  par.  4. 

2  A.  de  I.,  Patr.  2.  5.  1/6,  ramo  52. 

3  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  17,  par.  32. 


THE  CAS  A  DE  CONTRATACION  45 

Casa.^  But  the  institution  retained  essentially  the  character 
given  it  by  Philip  II.  Consulados  were  also  organized  toward  the 
end  of  the  sixteenth  century  in  America,  in  the  metropolitan  cities 
of  Mexico  and  Lima.^ 

1  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  17,  par.  11,  12. 

The  prior  and  consuls  were  chosen  by  thirty  electors  nominated  every  two 
years  by  the  whole  body  of  merchants  trading  with  America.  Father  and  son,  or 
two  brothers,  or  members  of  the  same  firm,  or  priors  and  consuls  of  the  two  years 
preceding,  were  ineligible.  Electors  must  be  independent  Spanish  merchants  (i.  e., 
not  foreigners,  employees,  notaries,  or  persons  holding  "  oficios  de  tienda  ptiblica  ")> 
married  or  widowers,  of  twenty-five  years  of  age  or  over.  In  1623  it  was  ruled  that 
sons  and  grandsons  of  foreigners  be  also  denied  the  right  to  vote  or  become  candi- 
dates for  oflSce.  On  the  other  hand,  any  eligible  person  refusing  to  accept  oflSce  was 
fined  50,000  maravedis  and  still  obliged  to  take  it.  Elections  were  held  in  the  pres- 
ence of  prior  and  consuls  and  the  "  juez  de  alzadas,"  and  the  attendance  of  at  least 
twenty  electors  was  required  to  make  them  valid.  In  the  seventeenth  century 
elections  were  frequently  suspended  by  the  Council  of  the  Indies,  or  prorogued  for 
a  year,  because  of  important  business  pending  which  required  the  supervision  and 
adjustment  of  ofl&cials  already  familiar  with  it. 

To  defray  the  expenses  of  the  Consulado,  a  slight  tax  was  levied  on  goods  shipped 
to  the  Indies,  and  paid  at  the  same  time  as  the  "  almojarifazgo."  Articles  coming 
from  the  Indies  were  exempt.  All  traders  were  liable  who  had  been  engaged  in  the 
trafl&c  more  than  a  year,  or  whose  first  venture  exceeded  the  value  of  1,000  ducats. 
Accounts  had  to  be  rendered  annually  by  the  Consulado  to  the  Council  of  the  Indies. 

The  Consulado  had  the  right  to  appoint  persons  in  all  the  ports  of  the  Indies  to 
see  to  the  enforcement  of  its  ordinances  and  privileges.  Its  ofl&cers  were  provided 
with  a  room  or  "  tribunal  "  in  the  Casa,  and  met  for  business  three  times  a  week,  on 
Mondays,  Wednesdays,  and  Fridays,  from  9  to  11  in  winter  and  8  to  10  in  summer. 

A.  de  I.,  Patr.  2.  5.  1/6,  ramo  52;  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  17.  See  also  Ap- 
pendix I. 

2  Sol6rzano,  op.  cit.,  lib.  vi,  cap.  14,  par.  24.  The  Mexican  consulado  was 
erected  about  1593-94,  and  its  ordinances  approved  by  the  Crown  in  1603.  That 
of  Lima  was  apparently  organized  ini6i3.  Ini6i8  Sol6rzano,  with  another  judge 
Dr.  Alberto  de  Acuna,  was  commissioned  to  draw  up  its  ordinances,  which  received 
royal  confirmation  in  1627. 


CHAPTER  III 

ORGANIZATION  vs.  EFFICIENCY 

It  was  in  keeping  with  the  general  policy  of  the  Spanish  Crown,  to 
increase  the  dignity  and  independence  of  the  India  House,  that 
Philip  II  in  October,  1557,  created  the  office  of  President,  the  first 
post  equal  or  superior  in  rank  to  that  of  the  three  original  oflScials 
of  1503.1  The  first  president  was  D.  Juan  Suarez  de  Carvajal, 
bishop  of  Lugo  and  commissary-general  of  the  Santa  Cruzada. 
He  survived  little  more  than  a  year,  however,  and  then  for  some 
obscure  reason  the  office  was  permitted  to  lapse  for  two  decades, 
till  1579,  when  it  was  revived  in  the  person  of  the  Hcentiate  Diego 
Gasca  de  Salazar.^  Thereafter  the  presidential  succession  re- 
mained unbroken.  Both  Carvajal  and  Salazar  had  been  members 
of  the  Council  of  the  Indies,  and  in  the  warrant  of  1579  it  was 
expressly  stated  that  presidents  of  the  Casa  must  have  had  experi- 
ence in  that  body.  Although  the  rule  was  not  invariably  followed, 
it  held  for  the  great  majority  of  cases,  the  president  being  some- 
times taken  from  among  the  judicial  members  of  the  Council 
(letrados),  sometimes  from  among  the  civilians  (de  capa  y 
espada).^ 

The  creation  of  this  office  was  a  natural  step  in  the  organization 
of  the  Casa.  It  helped  to  coordinate  the  activities  of  the  treasurer, 
factor,  and  contador,  gave  their  policy  a  cohesion  which  it  may  not 
have  had  before,  and  strengthened  their  relations  with  the  Coun- 
cil of  the  Indies.  For  the  first  time  the  India  House  was  subject  to 
a  single  supreme  executive  head.  The  chief  duties  of  the  president 
were  connected,  of  course,  with  matters  of  administration.  But 
when  a  new  chamber  was  established  later  to  take  charge  of  the 
judicial  business  of  the  Casa,  it  was  equally  under  his  supervision. 
Whether  a  "letrado"  or  not,  he  might  attend  its  sessions  in  order 
to  expedite  proceedings;  and  if  he  belonged  to  that  legal  class,  he 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  3,  par.  i.  *  Ibid.,  lib.  i,  cap.  3,  par.  4. 

'  Ibid.,  lib.  i,  cap.  37,  par.  1,2. 

46 


ORGANIZATION  VS.  EFFICIENCY  47 

had  a  vote  in  the  decision  of  all  civil  suits,  and  in  criminal  cases 
in  the  event  of  a  tie.  To  him  also  belonged  the  right  to  preside 
over  the  tribunal  of  the  Consulado,  but  he  possessed  no  vote,  and 
rarely  exercised  his  privilege. ^  Although  having  a  general  over- 
sight of  all  departments  and  activities  of  the  Casa,  it  soon  be- 
came his  principal  care,  especially  in  the  seventeenth  century,  to 
provide  for  the  regular  sailing  of  the  "  treasure  fleets  "  to  the 
Indies.  That  indeed  was  the  purpose  in  which  all  the  energies  of 
the  Casa  culminated.  And  in  the  time  of  the  PhiUps,  owing  to  the 
decay  of  the  Spanish  marine  and  the  bankruptcy  of  the  treasury, 
it  was  a  peculiarly  arduous  responsibility. 

The  administrative  expansion  of  the  India  House  after  the  time 
of  Charles  V  followed  along  two  fairly  distinct  lines  of  develop- 
ment. One  had  its  origin  in  the  treasurer's  department,  the  other 
in  that  of  the  factor.  One  grew  out  of  the  increasingly  large  sums 
of  money  handled  by  the  Casa  on  both  public  and  private  ac- 
coimts.  The  other  was  related  to  the  preparation  and  dispatch  of 
the  annual  fleets. 

By  the  first  instructions  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  the  treas- 
urer was  entrusted  solely  with  the  care  of  American  gold,  silver, 
pearls  and  precious  stones  credited  to  the  royal  exchequer.^  But 
in  1555,  when  the  rich  silver  mine  of  Guadalcanal  was  discovered 
on  the  borders  of  Estremadura,  its  revenues  also  were  delivered 
over  to  him.3    After  1560  he  became  receiver  of  the  proceeds  of 

^  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  3,  par.  18,  20;  Recop.,  lib.  ix,  tit.  2,  ley  2. 

The  president,  with  the  approval  of  the  jueces  oficiales,  made  temporary  ap- 
pointments to  all  vacancies  pending  the  action  of  the  Crown,  save  in  the  superior 
chambers  of  administration  and  justice.  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  21,  par.  9. 

2  Strictly  speaking,  all  gold  and  silver  bulHon,  pearls,  and  precious  stones  from 
America  were  charged  to  the  care  of  the  three  ofl&cials  of  the  Casa  conjointly;  and 
when  they  were  sold  or  otherwise  disposed  of,  or  the  bullion  converted  at  the  mint 
into  coin,  then  the  proceeds  in  currency  were  charged  to  the  treasurer  alone.  Ord. 
of  the  Casa,  1552,  no.  44;  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  5,  par.  23;  cap.  11,  par.  i. 

2  This  mine  was  worked  for  the  Crown  till  1576,  and  for  a  time  vied  in  richness 
with  the  best  in  America.  In  1558  it  netted  the  king  over  172  million  maravedis, 
and  in  the  twenty-one  years,  a  total  of  nearly  900  miUions  (400,000  marcs) .  It  was 
said  that  from  its  produce  alone  the  Escorial  was  built.  After  1573  its  output  began 
to  dwindle,  the  cost  of  operating  rapidly  increased,  and  after  several  attempts  of 
the  Fuggers  and  others  to  work  it,  the  mine  was  abandoned,  and  not  reopened  till 
the  nineteenth  century.  A.  de  I.,  39.  3.  6/4;  Colmeiro,  Economia  poMca,  ii, 
p.  436. 


48  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

the  Almojarifazgo  de  Indias,  and  in  1579,  when  the  administra- 
tion of  all  the  almojarifazgos  and  alcabalas  of  Andalusia  was 
vested  in  the  Casa,of  these  moneys  too.^  The  **bienes  de  difuntos*^ 
were  in  the  beginning  managed  by  all  three  officials  together. 
This  lasted  till  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  when  the  king 
created  and  sold  to  Juan  Castellanos  de  Espinosa  for  the  sum  of 
133,000  ducats  the  office  of  trustee  or  depository-general  of  such 
property.  But  in  160 1  Espinosa  became  bankrupt,  owing  on  the 
account  of  his  trusteeship  142I  million  maravedis,  of  which  only 
34 J  millions  were  eventually  recovered.  After  this  experiment, 
the  bienes  de  difuntos  were  also  handed  over  to  the  keeping  of  the 
treasurer  of  the  Casa.^  They  remained  from  this  time  forward  an 
added  charge  to  his  office;  and  although  only  15,000  ducats  addi- 
tional security  were  demanded  for  their  honest  administration, 
they  were  managed  with  an  efficiency  unknown  when  the  respon- 
sibility was  divided,  or  when  the  office  was  sold  to  a  banker  who 
hoped  by  speculation  to  pick  up  a  fortune  for  himself.  There 
was  a  similar  experience  with  the  funds  called  in  Spanish  excheq- 
uer records,  "  ausentes  y  depositos,"  i.  e.,  money  temporarily 
sequestered  in  the  Casa  by  creditors  or  plaintififs,  or  gold  or  silver 
come  from  the  Indies  the  consignees  of  which  could  not  imme- 
diately be  found.  In  the  modest  beginnings  of  the  Casa,  such 
funds  had  been  in  the  keeping  of  the  three  officials.  Later,  when 
the  penury  of  the  Crown  became  chronic,  they  were  entrusted,  for 
a  consideration,  to  private  individuals.  And  finally  in  1624,  after 
repeated  bankruptcies,  they  were  given  over  to  the  charge  of  the 
treasurer  of  the  India  House.  These  additional  obligations  of  the 
treasury  office  naturally  entailed  an  increase  of  staff.  But  they 
also  concentrated  financial  responsibility,  and  discouraged  money 
speculations  in  an  atmosphere  only  too  favorable  to  such  adven- 
ture. If  these  funds  were  to  be  available  for  illegitimate  purposes, 
thereafter  it  was  the  Crown  which  embezzled,  and  not  private 
individuals. 

The  factor  of  the  Casa  de  Contratacion,  after  the  Crown  had 
renoimced  whatever  mercantile  ambitions  it  may  originally  have 
entertained,  still  performed  many  functions.  If  governors  or  other 
*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  i,  par.  9.  '  Ihid.,  par.  10-12. 


ORGANIZATION  VS.  EFFICIENCY  49 

officials  in  the  Indies  sent  money  or  plate  to  Spain  to  purchase 
commodities  for  the  royal  service  or  for  otherwise  supplying  the 
colonies,  the  business  of  buying  and  shipping  belonged  to  the 
factor.  Similar  orders  from  the  king  or  from  the  Council  of  the 
Indies  were  his  particular  concern.  Anything  remitted  to  the 
king  from  the  Indies^  except  gold,  silver  or  other  treasure,  was 
stored  in  the  warehouse  and  charged  to  the  factor's  special 
account.   Gk)ld  and  silver  were  charged  only  to  the  treasurer. 

To  the  factor,  with  the  assistance  of  an  "  escribano  de  arma- 
das," belonged  also  in  the  beginning  the  duty  of  provisioning  and 
fitting  ships  or  armadas  for  the  India  navigation.  He  was  ex- 
pected to  purchase  and  keep  on  hand  in  the  arsenal  a  supply  of 
arms,  artillery,  munitions,  ships'  stores  and  tackle.  The  arsenal 
was  his  special  domain  (his  deputy  was  required  to  live  there), 
while  the  royal  warehouse  was  more  or  less  under  the  supervision 
of  the  treasurer  and  contador  as  well.  In  the  second  half  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  however,  after  the  system  of  fleets  and  convoys 
became  firmly  established,  these  functions  were  gradually  distrib- 
uted among  a  large  number  of  officials.  In  1588  was  appointed  a 
Purveyor- General  of  the  Armadas  and  Fleets  of  the  Indies,  in  the 
person  of  Antonio  de  Guevara,  member  of  the  Council  of  the 
Hacienda.^  He  took  over  from  the  factor  all  the  duties  implied  in 
his  title.  He  not  only  supervised  the  purchase  of  provisions,  but 
when  vessels  were  careened  and  refitted,  furnished  the  materials 
and  supplies,  and  engaged  the  superintendent,  carpenters,  caulk- 
ers, timekeepers,  etc.,  necessary  for  the  opera tion.^  Eventually 
his  personal  staff  consisted  of  two  deputies,  four  commissaries  or 
buyers,  two  clerks  and  a  constable.  Though  a  royal  nominee,  he 
was  subordinate  to  the  president  and  jueces  oficiales  of  the  Casa, 
and  in  his  absence  one  of  the  latter  often  filled  his  place.  But  in 
the  seventeenth  century  the  duties  of  the  purveyor-general  were 
in  turn  subdivided.  A  permanent  superintendent  was  nominated 
by  the  Crown,  the  "capitan  y  superintendente  de  las  maes- 
tranzas,"  a  sort  of  commandant  of  the  navy  yard,  who  assumed 
entire  management  of  the  processes  of  careening  and  repairing.^ 

1  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  22,  par.  2.  This  office  was  created  in  imitation  of  a 
similar  post  in  the  Royal  Navy  (Armada  del  Mar  Oceano). 

2  Ibid.y  par.  26-28.  '  Ibid.,  lib.  i,  cap.  23. 


so  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

There  was  also  a  storekeeper,  or  "tenedor  de  bastimentos,"  an  offi- 
cial who  originally  acted  as  receiver  of  the  goods  and  munitions 
purchased  by  the  factor,  but  who  later  was  subordinate  to  the 
purveyor-general  and  handled  only  materials  for  the  equipment 
of  the  fleets. 

Supervision  over  arms,  artillery  and  munitions  intended  for  the 
Indies  resided  in  the  Casa  de  Contratacion  for  over  a  hundred 
years,  until  1607,  when  it  was  united  with  the  general  administra- 
tion of  such  matters  for  the  whole  of  Spain.^  Thereafter  the  cap- 
tain-general of  artillery  had  control  of  this  department.  He 
appointed  the  captain  of  artillery  who  sailed  with  each  armada  to 
America,  and  also  the  gunners,  both  masters  and  ordinary.  He 
nominated,  with  the  approval  of  the  Casa  and  the  Council  of  War, 
a  staff  of  officials  which  took  charge  of  the  business  in  Seville  — 
a  lieutenant-general,  veedor,  contador,  pagador,  mayordomo 
(storekeeper),  and  artillero-mayor.  The  first  three  held  warrants 
directly  of  the  king,  the  others  were  of  inferior  rank.  All  were 
creations  of  the  seventeenth  century  except  the  artillero-mayor. 
His  was  an  old  office  which  had  existed  at  least  since  1575,  when 
the  factor  was  in  charge  of  this  service.  He  was  an  expert  required 
to  be  present  at  the  purchasing  and  testing  of  guns  and  powder. 
He  inspected  the  armament  of  vessels  about  to  sail  to,  or  just  re-  j 
turned  from,  America.  He  also  conducted  an  artillery  school,  * 
gave  practical  instruction  in  gunnery  and  the  manufacture  of 
powder,  held  examinations  and  issued  certificates  of  proficiency .^ 
At  the  recommendation  of  the  Casa,  a  government  foundry  for 
the  manufacture  of  brass  artillery  was  established  in  Seville  in 
161 1,  in  charge  of  Sebastian  Gonzalez  de  Leon. 

There  remained  with  the  factor,  however,  as  one  of  his  principal 
duties,  the  receipt  and  packing  of  quicksilver  exported  by  the 
Crown  to  America  for  use  at  the  silver  mines.  Indeed,  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  the  old  arsenal  of  the  Casa  was  chiefly  em- 

1  Whether  the  supplying  of  artillery  and  munitions  after  1588  still  belonged  to 
the  factor,  or  was  entrusted  with  his  other  duties  to  the  purveyor-general,  is  not 
very  clear. 

2  A.  de.  I.,  46.  6. 1/51, no.  2;  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  caps.  23,  24.  The  "veedor  de 
artilleria"  had  general  supervision  of  the  manufacture  of  the  cannon  used  in  the 
fleets. 


ORGANIZATION  VS.  EFFICIENCY  JI 

ployed  for  the  storage  of  this  metal.  After  the  introduction  by  a 
Mexican  miner  in  1556  of  the  process  of  amalgamating  silver  ores, 
the  Spanish  government  shrewdly  declared  the  export  of  quick- 
silver a  monopoly  of  the  Crown.  The  new  method  was  found  so 
profitable  that  it  spread  with  extraordinary  rapidity,  and  the  sale 
of  mercury  in  the  New  World  grew  to  be  a  lucrative  source  of  in- 
come. As  the  steady  flow  of  silver  from  the  mines  of  Mexico  and 
Upper  Peru  became  essential  to  the  maintenance  of  a  bankrupt 
government,  so,  conversely,  an  uninterrupted  supply  of  mercury 
to  these  colonies  was  one  of  the  government's  most  immediate 
concerns.  In  fact,  as  most  European  goods  were  paid  for  in  bul- 
lion, the  very  continuance  of  Spanish-American  trade  seemed  to 
depend  upon  it.  And  all  the  quicksilver  sent  to  the  Indies, 
whether  from  the  mines  of  Almaden  in  Spain,  or  from  more 
distant  Hungary,  passed  through  the  Casa  de  Contratacion. 

The  expense  of  maintaining  armadas  for  the  protection  of  the 
India  fleets  was  met  by  a  duty  on  exports  and  imports  called  the 
Averia.  The  administration  of  this  tax  devolved  for  a  long  time 
on  the  three  jueces  oficiales  of  the  Casa.  They  were  aided  in  its 
collection  by  a  receiver  (receptor  de  averias)  and  doubtless 
by  other  minor  ofiicials.  But  after  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  when  the  income  from  the  averia  became  greater,  this 
business  involved  a  heavy  increase  in  administrative  responsi- 
bility. Apparently  to  reHeve  this  situation,  in  1573  ^^^  general 
management  of  the  averia  was  entrusted  to  a  new  official  called 
the  Deputy  Auditor  (diputado  contador).  He  not  only  as  auditor 
kept  the  accounts,  but  seems  to  have  had  charge  of  collection  and 
expenditure  as  well.^  There  still  existed  the  receptor  de  averias, 
and  the  two  together  were  in  all  things  responsible  to  the  officials 
of  the  Casa.  At  about  the  same  time  there  appeared  a  "pagador 
de  averias,"  or  paymaster,  whose  duties  seem  to  have  been  more 

^  Vdtia  Linaje  says  that  there  was  a  deputy  auditor  from  the  very  beginning, 
and  that  at  first  he  had  charge  also  of  the  purchase  of  provisions,  artillery,  and  other 
supplies  for  the  armadas.  Both  statements  are  doubtful.  The  "  diputado  general" 
of  earlier  years  was  probably  that  member  of  the  Casa,  generally  the  treasurer, 
to  whom  was  deputed  the  cognizance  of  suits  arising  out  of  the  collection  of  this 
tax.    Cf.  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  21,  par.  2. 


52  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

closely  associated  with  those  of  the  purveyor-general  referred  toi 
above.  ! 

The  deputy  auditor's  task,  however,  proved  too  great  for  a 
single  individual.  Overwhelmed  with  matters  of  administration, 
he  let  his  accounts  fall  far  behind.  In  response  to  an  inspector's 
report  to  this  effect,  in  1580  the  king  appointed  a  Contador  de 
Averias,  whose  sole  duty  was  the  keeping  and  adjustment  of  the 
books.  In  1587,  he  added  a  second.  But  even  these  were  unable 
to  cope  with  the  arrears,  and  four  more  contadores  were  appointed 
in  1596.  The  first  two  were  "  proprietarios,"  i.  e.,  they  held  office 
for  life.  The  four  newcomers  were  employed  for  a  limited  time 
only.  Together  they  formed  the  Tribunal  de  la  Contaduria  de 
Averias.  In  its  final  form  the  tribunal  consisted  of  four  per- 
manent auditors  and  a  superintendent  (contador  mayor  super- 
intendente)  the  latter  place  being  first  created  in  1641 .  Elaborate 
instructions  for  the  guidance  of  the  tribunal  were  issued  in  1588, 
in  1620,  and  in  165 1,  and  are  summarized  in  the  Laws  of  the 
Indies.^ 

To  this  Court  of  Audits  belonged  the  entire  business  of  adjust- 
ing and  correcting  accounts  arising  out  of  the  collection  and  ex- 
penditure of  the  avena.  The  existence  of  so  thoroughly  organized 
an  office  naturally  suggested  that  other  financial  records  be  sub- 
mitted to  it.  In  1597  the  India  Council  decided  that  accounts 
connected  with  all  departments  and  activities  of  the  Casa  pass 
before  the  Contaduria  de  Averias.  The  only  exceptions  made 
were  the  accounts  of  the  royal  exchequer  and  bienes  de  difuntos. 
These  were  still  left  to  the  contador  of  the  India  House.^  In  16 16, 
however,  the  records  of  the  bienes  de  difuntos  were  also  trans- 
ferred. From  this  time  forward  the  tribunal  was  the  auditing 
office  for  the  averia,  reports  of  officers  in  the  armadas  and  flotas, 
funds  called  "  bienes  de  difuntos,  ausentes  y  depositos,"  factorial 
accounts,  and  those  of  the  tenedor  de  bastimentos,  correo  mayor, 
mayordomo  and  pagador  de  artilleria,  and  receptor  de  penas  de 

^  A.  de  I.,  46,  6.  1/51,  no.  2;  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  19,  par.  2-5. 

2  On  the  second  day  of  January  the  coffers  of  the  India  House  were  supposed  to 
be  examined,  and  immediately  after  the  accounts  of  the  treasurer,  properly  ordered 
and  attested,  were  presented  for  audit. 


ORGANIZATION  VS.  EFFICIENCY  53 

camara.*  It  possessed  its  own  notary  and  doorkeeper,  and  was 
under  the  general  direction  of  the  president  and  administrative 
chamber  of  the  Casa.  It  was  the  president's  particular  duty  to 
visit  it  frequently,  to  see  that  its  members  were  at  their  posts  and 
its  rules  properly  enforced. 

The  olSices  of  diputado  contador  and  receptor  continued 
through  the  seventeenth  century,  but  their  functions  were  con- 
fined to  active  administration  of  the  averia.  The  diputado  was 
the  real  manager  of  this  branch  of  the  royal  service.  It  was  his 
duty  to  adjust  the  schedules  of  the  tax,  making  computation  of 
the  cost  of  each  armada,  and  apportioning  it  among  the  goods  and 
treasure  carried  on  the  voyage.  This  involved  the  examination  of 
all  the  registers  of  outgoing  and  incoming  cargoes.  In  addition, 
besides  keeping  record  of  the  moneys  received  and  paid  out  by  the 
receptor,  and  of  all  official  correspondence,  he  acted  as  sort  of 
public  prosecutor  in  judicial  actions  touching  the  averia.  In  1650 
this  latter  function  was  transferred  to  the  fiscal  of  the  Casa.^ 

The  post  of  deputy  auditor  was  one  of  the  most  important  con- 
nected with  the  India  House,  and  was  always  considered  to  re- 
quire the  highest  degree  of  intelligence  and  assiduity.  At  a  time, 
therefore,  when  most  goverrmient  places  were  knocked  down  to 
the  highest  bidder,  it  continued  to  be  filled  by  direct  royal  ap- 
pointment. In  1645  another  deputy  was  added  to  share  the 
onerous  responsibilities  of  the  office,  and  in  165 1  a  third  was 
appointed  for  the  port  of  Cadiz.^ 

For  a  hundred  and  twenty-two  years  the  administrative  divi- 
sion of  the  Casa  de  Contratacion  consisted  only  of  the  treasurer, 
contador  and  factor,  the  original  three  created  in  1503.  In  the 
sixteenth  century,  they  were  usually  men  selected  for  their  experi- 
ence, or  for  talents  which  peculiarly  fitted  them  to  occupy  these 
posts.  An  iimovation  was  introduced  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
however,  by  Philip  IV,  one  which  was  boimd  to  affect  the  effi- 

^  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  19,  par.  7,  8. 

2  Ihid.y  lib.  i,  cap.  7,  par.  9;  cap.  21,  par.  3-5,  10. 

3  Ihid. ,  lib.  i,  cap.  2 1 ,  par.  6,  8, 1 1 ,  24.  The  ofl5ce  of  receptor  was  at  the  disposal 
of  the  Casa,  and  in  the  seventeenth  century  its  incumbent  had  to  give  bond  to  the 
amount  of  30,000  ducats.  His  salary  was  a  large  one,  1,000  ducats  in  silver,  doubt- 
less to  remove  the  temptation  to  peculate. 


S4  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

dency  and  esprit  de  corps  of  the  Casa.  In  November,  1625,  Philip 
created  the  Count-Duke  of  Olivares,  his  favorite  and  chief  min- 
ister, "  alguacil  mayor  "  or  high  sheriff,  and  perpetual  "  juez 
oficial  "  of  the  India  House.  Olivares  may  already  have  felt  some 
sentimental  connection  with  the  institution,  for  several  years 
earlier,  at  his  master's  accession,  he  had  been  created  Duke  of  San 
Lucar.  As  juez  oficial,  he  was  given  precedence  next  to  the 
president,  and  in  the  latter's  absence  might  act  in  his  stead.  As 
alguacil  mayor,  an  office  created  especially  for  him,  he  appointed 
the  jailer  and  all  the  constables  (alguaciles)  employed  in  the  serv- 
ice of  the  Casa  or  in  the  administration  of  the  averia.  The  office 
was  made  hereditary,  and  as  Olivares  or  his  heirs  were  not  likely 
to  exercise  its  functions  in  person,  they  were  empowered  to  ap- 
point a  deputy,  with  the  approval  of  the  Council  of  the  Indies. 
The  deputy,  however,  possessed  no  precedence  over  the  older 
officials,  and  should  the  proprietor  come  to  Seville,  although  he 
retained  his  seat  in  the  Casa,  could  not  vote.  Olivares  had  also  the 
privilege  of  selling  or  otherwise  disposing  of  the  office  to  any  one 
approved  by  the  India  Council.  His  salary  was  the  same  as  that 
of  the  other  jueces  oficiales.^ 

It  was  unfortunate  that  the  highest  administrative  posts  in  so 
old  and  worthy  an  institution  as  the  India  House  should  suffer  the 
blight  which  attacked  all  Spanish  administration  under  the 
Philips,  i.  e.,  the  sale  and  purchase  of  government  offices.  Men 
who  had  grown  gray  in  the  king's  employ,  and  who  owed  their 
places  to  their  own  merits  and  services,  found  themselves  out- 
ranked in  the  tribunal  by  royal  favorites;  or  their  deliberations 
vitiated  by  the  voice  and  vote  of  deputies  to  whom  these  favorites 
entrusted  duties  which  they  themselves  had  neither  the  occasion 
nor  the  intention  of  fulfilling.  And  although  the  nomination  of  a 
deputy  required  the  approval  of  the  India  Council,  it  was  scarcely 

1  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  15,  par.  1-3.  At  the  same  time  there  was  created  for 
Olivares  the  ofl&ce  of  "  escribano  mayor,"  with  the  right  to  choose  most  of  the 
scriveners  or  notaries  attached  to  the  Casa.  In  the  seventeenth  century  there  were 
six  proprietary  escribanos,  four  connected  with  the  chambers  of  administration  and 
justice,  one  with  the  contaduria  de  averlas,  and  one  appointed  for  the  dispatch  of 
the  armadas  and  flotas.  Each  proprietor  was  aided  by  several  clerks.  Cf.  »Wd., 
lib.  i,  caps.  26,  27. 


ORGANIZATION  VS.  EFFICIENCY  SS 

to  be  expected  that  the  Council  would  seriously  question  the  pro- 
posals of  the  Count-Duke.  There  was  introduced  into  the  Casa 
an  aristocratic  element  which  it  had  been  the  aim  of  the  Catholic 
kings  and  their  immediate  successors  to  eliminate  from  the 
government  service.  It  was  therefore  a  retrograde  step,  a  falling 
away  from  the  best  traditions  of  the  monarchy. 

It  was  in  keeping  with  this  general  tendency  that  Philip,  twelve 
years  after  he  had  introduced  Olivares  into  the  India  House, 
began  the  creation  of  supernumerary  oflScials,  "  jueces  oficiales 
supemumerarios  "  as  they  were  called.  These  men  were  pre- 
sumably appointed  in  recognition  of  services  rendered  to  the 
Crown,  probably  in  most  cases  for  generosity  to  the  royal  purse. 
In  nearly  every  instance  they  were  given  the  reversion  of  one  of 
the  three  original  proprietary  posts  of  the  Casa  on  the  death  of  the 
existing  incumbent,  but  their  functions  as  jueces  oficiales  began 
with  the  date  of  their  patent.  The  first  supernumerary  was 
Andres  de  Munibe,  appointed  in  1637,  with  the  reversion  of  the 
treasurership.  Upon  which  he  entered  three  years  later.  He  had 
previously  had  experience  as  first  assistant  to  the  contador. 
Between  1637  and  1672,  when  Veitia  Linaje  wrote  the  Norte 
de  la  Contratacion,  there  were  six  other  such  officials  added  to 
the  pay  rolls  of  the  Casa.^ 

The  most  serious  assault  upon  the  constitution  of  the  India 
House  came  in  1643,  when  Garcia  de  Avellaneda,  Count  of  Cas- 
trillo,2  was  made  "  alcaide  y  guarda  mayor  "  and  perpetual "  juez 
oficial,"  as  well  as  "  juez  conservador  "  of  the  Lonja  or  Mer- 
chants' Exchange.  His  seat  in  the  Casa  was  to  be  next  that  of 
Olivares,  or  in  the  latter's  absence  next  to  the  president.  He  was 
paid  a  salary  equal  to  the  president's,  and  had  the  appointment  of 
all  the  porters,  the  guards  of  the  treasury,  the  first  chaplain,  and 
the  officers  stationed  in  the  "aduana"  or  customhouse  for  the  col- 
lection of  the  averia.  The  nomination  to  these  places  had  pre- 
viously belonged  to  the  president  of  the  Council  of  the  Indies. 
Like  the  alguadl  mayor,  the  alcaide  might  appoint  a  deputy,  but 

^  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  37,  par.  31. 

'  He  was  an  iincle  of  D.  Luis  de  Haro,  who  succeeded  Olivares  in  the  graces  of 
the  king  as  chief  minister. 


S6  TRADE  AND  NA  VIGA TION 

this  deputy  enjoyed  all  the  honors  and  precedence  of 
prietor.^  It  is  significant  that  these  lieutenants  of  the 
mayor  and  alcaide  mayor  were  neither  of  them  required  t 
sureties  upon  entrance  into  office,  an  exemption  which 
tended  to  no  other  members  of  the  India  House.  It  was 
least  of  their  privileges,  for  not  only  were  they  reliev( 
necessity  of  finding  suitable  bondsmen,  but  the  proprie 
feel  little  responsibility  for  their  nominations. 

From  the  foregoing,  one  may  suspect  that  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  sixteenth  century  and  after,  the  personnel  of  the  Casa  de  Con- 
tratacion  was  assuming  proportions  unwarranted  by  any  corre- 
sponding increase  in  the  volume  of  business  transacted.  The 
suspicion  is  further  justified  by  the  criticisms  of  some  contem- 
porary Spaniards.^  Several  reasons  may  be  suggested  for  this 
course  of  development.  It  was  in  keeping  with  the  tendency 
toward  excessive  bureaucratic  organization  credited  to  Philip  II 
and  his  immediate  successors.  The  Crown,  in  its  anxiety  to  super- 
vise and  control  every  detail  of  commercial  activity,  added  to  the 
number  of  functionaries,  and  spun  the  "  red  tape  '^  to  an  inor- 
dinate extent.  At  a  time,  moreover,  when  the  government  was 
virtually  bankrupt,  the  more  offices  created  the  more  there  were 
to  sell,  and  so  meet  the  temporary  exigencies  of  an  empty  treas- 
ury. It  was  a  policy  agreeable  to  a  people  somewhat  disdainful  of 
professional  or  commercial  pursuits,  tenacious  of  personal  honor, 
and  greedy  of  the  distinction  attaching  to  posts  in  the  service  of 
the  Crown. 

The  Casa  always  suiBfered  from  an  excess  of  solemnity  and 
etiquette,  and  there  is  little  evidence  that  administration  im- 
proved with  the  increased  staff  of  officials.  The  result  was  too 
often  mere  routine  and  procrastination.  Alvarez  Osorio,  in  his 
Extension  Politica,  published  in  1687,  says  that  the  revenues 
from  the  India  trade,  amounting  to  about  a  million  pesos,  were 
mostly  consumed  in  administrative  expenses.  The  management 
of  the  ordnance  department,  a  comparatively  simple  business, 
might  have  been  as  effective  and  more  economical  without  the 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  15,  par.  6-13. 

'  A.  de  I.,  46.  6.  1/51,  no.  2;  Extension  PolUica. 


ORGANIZATION  VS.  EFFICIENCY  $7 

host  of  officers — veedor,  contador,  pagador,  mayordomo,  etc.  — 
whose  respective  duties  were  slight  enough,  and  whose  chief  func- 
tion was  probably  the  receipt  of  a  salary  out  of  the  proceeds  of  the 
averia.  Especially  when  the  averia  was  farmed  out  to  the  Seville 
merchants  as  represented  by  their  gild  or  Consulado,  the  elaborate 
machinery  described  must  have  been  unnecessarily  complex  and 
expensive.  And  the  critics  doubtless  had  good  reason  for  harking 
back  to  an  earlier  and  simpler  age. 

The  jurisdiction  of  the  Casa  de  Contratacion,  as  originally  de- 
fined in  1539,  suffered  little  alteration,  except  for  the  transfer  of 
civil  pleas,  four  years  later,  to  the  Consulado.  What  changes  were 
made  consisted  chiefly  in  the  addition  of  new  officers  to  take  care 
of  the  rising  flood  of  litigation.  In  July,  1 546,  was  created  by  royal 
warrant  the  office  of  "fiscal,"  or  public  prosecutor,  the  duties 
of  which  had  till  then  been  performed  by  nominees  of  the  Casa.^ 
The  two  letrados,  appointed  earlier  in  the  century  to  aid  the  offi- 
cials of  the  Casa  in  their  judicial  functions,  were  merely  consulting 
lawyers,  without  the  title  or  prerogatives  of  judge,  although  they 
assisted  publicly  at  the  pronouncement  of  sentence.  In  1 553  was 
added  a  "■  juez  asesor,"  a  more  formidable  official,  who  sat  on  the 
bench  and  took  part  in  the  proceedings.^  And  judicial  business 
was  disposed  of  in  this  fashion  till  well  into  the  reign  of  Philip  II. 
Then  by  a  decree  of  September  25,  1583,  was  created  a  separate 
Court  of  Justice  (sala  de  justicia  de  la  casa  de  contratacion).  At 
first  it  consisted  of  only  two  Oidores,  or  "  jueces  letrados  "  (i.  e., 
judges  bred  to  the  law,  to  distinguish  them  from  the  three  original 
"  jueces  oficiales  ") ;  but  in  1596  a  third  was  added,  and  the  court 
in  form  and  procedure  was  made  to  approximate  the  chancel- 

^  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  7,  par.  2.  "El  Abogado  del  fisco  es  la  voz  del  Rey 
en  sus  causas,  zelador  de  los  que  administran  la  Real  Hazienda,  inquiridor  de  los 
que  la  detentan,  delator  de  los  que  la  defraudan,  Procurador  de  su  mayor  beneficio, 
y  ultimamente  la  espada  de  dos  filos,  civil  y  criminal,  que  se  esgrime  en  defensa  del 
Patrimonio  Real."  Ihid.,  par.  i.  After  1595  the  fiscal  had  the.  right  to  appoint 
an  assistant  attorney  or  "  agente  solicitador." 

There  was  also  from  early  times  a  reader  or  "  relator,"  appointed  at  first  by 
the  Casa,  later  by  the  king. 

'  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  6,  par.  i. 


58  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

leries  and  other  royal  audiencias  of  the  reahn.i  Thereafter  the 
Casa  consisted  of  two  distinct  chambers,  one  of  administration, 
and  one  of  justice,  with  the  president  as  a  connecting  link  between 
them.  The  new  Sala  was  a  final  court  for  all  cases  involving  less 
than  600,000  maravedis,  and  in  all  criminal  trials  save  those 
involving  confiscation,  death,  mutilation  or  other  corporal  punish- 
ment.2  There  were  no  territorial  Hmits  to  its  jurisdiction;  it 
might  withdraw  suits  affecting  the  ordinances  of  the  Casa  from 
any  part  of  the  realm,  and  its  judges  or  their  officers  require  aid  or 
information  in  any  province  of  the  peninsula  or  the  Indies.^  There 
were  endless  conflicts  in  the  following  century  between  this  tri- 
bunal and  the  multitude  of  other  authorities  in  the  kingdom,  not 
only  ordinary  magistrates,  but  commissioners  of  the  Cruzada, 
judges  of  the  Hacienda,  and  the  governors  of  Cadiz  and  San 
Lucar.  The  interests  involved  in  Indian  trade  and  finance  were  so 
extended  that  such  officials  were  constantly  tempted  to  interfere 
in  business  the  governance  of  which  belonged  exclusively  to  the 
Casa.  But  usually  the  jurisdiction  of  the  latter  was  steadfastly 
maintained  by  the  Crown.  The  Casa  had,  of  course,  exclusive  com- 
petence over  all  cases  involving  its  own  officials  or  subordinates.* 

1  By  an  earlier  c6dula,  dated  June  14,  1558,  the  Casa  de  Contrataci6n  was 
ordered  to  follow  the  procedure  of  the  royal  audiencias  of  Valladolid  and  Granada. 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  6,  par.  6,  7. 

'  Cedula  of  June  21,  1574  {ibid.,  lib.  i,  cap.  2,  par.  5  f.).  A  year  and  a  half  was 
allowed  for  securing  necessary  testimony  from  Spanish  America,  except  from  Peru, 
for  which  two  years  was  the  time  limit.  Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1552,  no.  24. 

*  Even  after  the  establishment  of  the  sala  de  justicia,  it  remained  customary  for 
criminal  actions  or  civil  suits  to  originate  in  the  administrative  chamber,  and  then 
be  remitted  to  the  judicial  branch  of  the  Casa.  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  5,  par.  5. 
The  administrative  chamber  till  1604  also  retained  the  cognizance  of  suits  con- 
nected with  the  collection  of  the  averia.  Thereafter  they,  too,  were  transferred  to 
the  jueces  letrados.  Ihid.,  lib.  i,  cap.  20,  par.  10. 


CHAPTER  IV 

REGISTERS  AND  CUSTOMS 

There  was  no  rule  of  the  India  House  more  ancient  or  longer 
maintained  than  that  subjecting  to  government  registry  all  car- 
goes and  passengers  crossing  the  Atlantic  between  Spain  and 
America.  It  appears  in  the  instructions  to  Columbus  in  1493,  is 
repeated  in  the  first  ordinances  of  the  Casa  ten  years  after,  and  its 
observance  frequently  enjoined  in  later  decrees.  Registration 
seemed  an  obvious  and  indispensable  formality,  and  originated 
probably  with  the  very  beginnings  of  medieval  maritime  com- 
merce. It  not  only  made  for  clarity  and  precision  in  freight  con- 
tracts between  shipowners  and  merchants,  but  also  facilitated  the 
collection  of  customs  and  other  royal  dues.  It  provided  the  Crown 
with  an  easy  means  of  keeping  in  touch  with  the  course  of  trade, 
an  important  consideration  for  a  government  which  pursued  the 
paternal  policy  characteristic  of  the  Spanish  Hapsburgs. 

At  first,  apparently,  when  private  trade  of  the  Crown  was 
chiefly  intended,  there  was  merely  a  manifest  made  out  by  the 
ship's  clerk,  and  countersigned  by  the  captain,  of  the  merchandise 
received  on  the  vessel.^  A  copy  was  presumably  deposited  with 
the  contador,  or  comptroller,  of  the  Casa.  But  as  the  Casa  be- 
came more  and  more  a  supervisory  bureau  for  the  trade  of  private 
merchants  with  the  New  World,  all  goods  destined  for  America 
had  to  be  declared  before  its  officials,  and  included  in  a  royal 
register  of  the  ship  upon  which  they  were  to  be  embarked.  After 
the  register  was  closed,  no  other  articles  might  be  put  on  board 
without  special  permission.^  The  captain  or  master  had  to  give 
bond  to  the  amount  of  10,000  ducats  that  he  would  deliver  the 
register  and  cargo  imaltered  to  the  treasury  oflacials  of  the  port  of 

^  Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1503,  no.  8. 

2  C6dula  of  Nov.  9, 1526  (Antimez  y  Acevedo,  p.  148);  Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1552, 
nos.  157,  159. 

59 


6o  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

destination,  and  bring  back  a  receipt  to  the  India  House.^  And  it 
was  strictly  forbidden  to  any  other  authority,  whether  governors 
or  judges  in  America,  or  admirals  or  other  officers  of  the  fleets, 
to  open  the  registers  or  tamper  with  them  in  any  way.  Similar 
regulations  were  applied  to  vessels  sailing  between  ports  in  the 
colonies.2 

To  the  contador  of  the  Casa  de  Contratacion  belonged  the  cus- 
tody and  preservation  of  these  registers,  and  he  was  liable  for  the 
damages  suffered  by  any  individual  through  their  loss  or  destruc- 
tion, or  because  of  errors  of  record  or  transcription.  At  a  later 
time,  the  labor  involved  was  left  to  a  subordinate,  approved  by 
the  India  Council,  who  made  out  and  corrected  the  papers,  issued 

*  Ordinances,  July,  1522,  no.  5;  Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1552,  no.  r6o.  In  1525  Barto- 
lom6  Hernandez  Franco,  an  inhabitant  of  Huelva,  petitioned  for  permission  to  carry 
a  shipload  of  fish  from  the  coast  of  Guinea  to  the  Indies  without  coming  to  register  it 
in  Seville.  The  petition  was  granted.  A.  de  I.,  139.  i.  5,  lib.  10,  fol.  19. 

2  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  17,  par.  34;  cap.  27,  par.  16. 

The  register  of  a  vessel  sailing  from  Seville  seems  in  the  sixteenth  century  to 
have  been  made  up  in  the  following  manner.  The  merchant,  or  ship  captain,  who 
had  goods  to  send  to  America,  presented  to  the  contador  of  the  India  House,  a 
sufficient  time  before  the  fleet  sailed,  a  signed  memorial  indicating  the  consignee, 
the  nature  and  quantity  of  the  shipment,  and  the  vessel  on  which  it  was  to  be 
embarked.  Only  then  was  formal  permission  given  to  put  the  goods  on  board. 
(For  a  time  after  1570,  apparently,  there  had  to  be  a  sworn  statement.  Recop.,  lib. 
ix,  tit.  33,  ley  4.)  The  whole  number  of  such  declarations  for  any  particular  vessel 
constituted  the  register  of  the  vessel.  They  were  sewed  together,  the  necessary 
signatures  added  and  attested,  and  the  completed  document  entrusted  to  the  captain 
for  delivery  to  the  royal  officials  in  the  Indies. 

At  a  later  time  the  procedure  was  slightly  different.  The  registers  were  simple 
declarations  attested  by  the  ship's  clerk  after  the  goods  were  embarked,  giving  the 
consignor,  consignee,  vessel,  fleet,  destination,  and  in  the  margin  the  private  marks 
identifying  each  shipment.  To  this  were  appended  the  receipts  for  the  averia, 
almojarifazgo,  and  whatever  other  taxes  were  collected  by  the  customs  officers, 
with  the  appraised  value  of  the  articles;  and  only  when  these  receipts  had  been 
secured  was  the  declaration  presented  to  the  contador  of  the  India  House,  to  form 
part  of  the  ship's  papers.  In  the  sixteenth  century  the  registers  were  sealed,  in  the 
seventeenth  generally  not. 

The  registers  of  vessels  coming  from  America  consisted  merely  of  attested  copies 
of  the  bills  of  lading,  made  out  before  the  proper  authorities  in  the  American  port, 
in  which  were  specified  the  nature,  quantity,  and  quality  of  the  articles  shipped,  the 
freight  paid,  and  the  names  of  the  consignees. 

Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1552,  nos.  54,  55;  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  10,  par.  11;  lib.  ii, 
cap.  17,  par.  3,  9, 11;  Recop. y  lib.  ix,  tit.  33,  leyes  1-9. 


REGISTERS  AND  CUSTOMS  6 1 

copies  or  certifications  when  called  for,  and  was  present  at  the 
inspection  of  ships  preliminary  to  sailing.  ^ 

From  the  beginning,  the  penalty  for  shipping  goods  unreg- 
istered was  confiscation.  The  ordinances  of  1552  set  aside  one 
fifth  of  the  value  forfeited  for  the  informer  or  the  official  who 
uncovered  the  fraud,  and  one  fourth  in  case  the  discovery  was 
made  immediately  after  the  register  was  closed  and  before  the 
vessel  sailed.  But  this  rule  in  later  practice  applied  only  to  dis- 
closures by  the  jueces  oficiales  of  the  Casa.  The  laws  on  this 
score  were  numerous  and  conflicting,  but  in  general  one  third  of 
the  forfeiture  went  to  the  informer  and  the  judge  before  whom  the 
denunciation  was  made  (provided  he  was  not  a  judge  of  the  India 
House),  to  be  divided  equally  between  them.  A  decree  of  1638 
encouraged  secret  delation,  offering  the  reward  immediately  upon 
apprehension  of  the  delinquent.^ 

The  interests  of  creditors  and  underwriters  were  carefully  con- 
served. By  a  decree  of  July,  1 5 1 1 ,  any  one  who  registered  his  own- 
goods  under  another's  name  forfeited  them  on  the  first  offense, 
and  on  the  second  suffered  also  the  loss  of  half  his  property.  One 
fourth  of  the  confiscation  went  to  the  informer,  one  fourth  to  the 
judge  who  gave  sentence,  and  the  rest  to  the  Crown.  But  the 
severity  of  the  rule  was  soon  mitigated.  A  law  two  years  later 
(June  15,  1 5 13)  mulcted  the  offender,  in  addition  to  the  goods 
confiscated,  of  four  times  their  value;  and  eventually  the  fine  was 
reduced  to  twice  the  value  falsely  registered.   The  law  of  15 13, 

^  Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1552,  no.  59. 

2  Veitia  Linaje,  Kb.  ii,  cap.  17,  par.  27-29;  Recop.,  lib.  viii,  tit.  17,  leyes  7,  11; 
Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1552,  nos.  157,  159,  187. 

A  decree  of  August,  1577,  stated  that  the  claims  of  the  averia  and  customs  must 
be  satisfied  before  the  informer  received  his  share;  and  a  cedula  of  1619  directed 
that  when  the  forfeiture  was  a  large  one,  or  the  informer  did  no  more  than  report 
the  offense  (i.  e.,  did  not  himself  prosecute  it),  the  court  was  to  reduce  the  relative 
share  of  the  reward.  The  decree  of  1638  reduced  the  judge's  portion  to  one  third 
of  the  reward,  and  this  seems  to  have  been  the  rule  in  Veitia  Linaje's  time.  Yet  in 
the  Recopilaci6n  of  168 1  there  was  revived  another  law  of  1657,  allowing  the  judge 
one  sixth  of  the  entire  forfeiture,  and  the  informer  one  third  of  the  rest. 

Suits  in  American  seaports  involving  offenses  against  the  registry  laws  were  in 
the  second  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  made  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  local 
treasury  officials  (after  1625  in  conjunction  with  the  governor  or  corregidor  of  the 
port),  from  whom  appeal  lay  directly  to  the  Council  of  the  Indies. 


62  ,  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

however,  continued  to  hold  for  any  one  who  registered  another's 
goods  under  his  own  name,  or  under  any  name  but  that  of  the 
owner.i 

After  import  and  export  duties  were  imposed  on  trans-Atlantic 
commerce,  and  a  tax  for  the  maintenance  of  convoys  to  pro- 
tect the  merchant  fleets,  the  inducements  to  smuggle  became 
more  attractive.  Clandestine  trade  flourished  on  the  Guadal- 
quiver  itself,  and  it  was  necessary  to  issue  decrees  time  and  time 
again,  reiterating  the  penalties  for  any  contravention  of  the  rules. 
By  a  law  of  July,  1580,  if  a  captain  or  other  ship's  officer  carried 
secretly  for  another  person  unregistered  money,  bullion  or  mer- 
chandise, and  the  goods  were  confiscated,  he  had  to  refund  their 
entire  value  to  the  person  from  whom  they  were  received.  Ap- 
parently thereafter  the  Hability  was  to  be  incurred,  not  by  the 
shipper,  but  by  the  carrier.  Another  decree,  of  the  year  1593, 
provided  that  any  ship's  officer  caught  with  unregistered  articles 
in  his  possession,  be  punished  with  the  loss  of  his  place  for  four 
years;  if  the  smuggler  was  a  person  of  meaner  condition,  an 
ordinary  seaman,  he  was  sent  to  the  galleys  for  a  similar  period.^ 
In  the  same  year  severest  penalties  were  decreed  for  the  prior  £ind 
consuls  of  the  merchant  gild,  if  bullion  or  other  commodities  were 
discovered  to  have  been  introduced  into  Spain  at  their  orders 
without  registration.  They  were  to  forfeit  all  of  their  property 
and  go  into  perpetual  banishment  from  the  dominions  of  the 
Spanish  Crown.^  In  the  seventeenth  century  the  punishments 
were  made  even  harsher.  The  rule  regarding  the  prior  and  con-^ 
suls  was  extended  to  every  owner  of  unregistered  merchandise. 
If  he  was  a  member  of  the  ship's  company,  officer  or  sailor,  he 
was  condemned  to  the  galleys  for  ten  years,  and  not  permitted 
to  have  any  connection  again  with  the  India  navigation."* 

The  increasing  rigor  of  these  penalties  is  evidence  enough  of  the 
wide  extent  of  contraband  trade.  And  in  spite  of  laws  and  proc- 
lamations, this  trade  continued  to  increase,  especially  in  the 
seventeenth  century.  Articles  were  hidden  in  the  hold,  away  from 

*  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  v,  pp.  94,  285;  Ord.  of  the  Casa^  1552,  no.  205;  Recop., 
lib.  ix,  tit.  33,  ley  34. 

*  Recop.,  lib.  ix,  tit.  33,  ley  57.  »  Ibid.,  ley  58. 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  17,  par.  8  (c6dula  of  March,  1634). 


REGISTERS  AND  CUSTOMS  63 

the  inspectors'  eyes,  or  taken  on  board  after  the  ship  had  dropped 
down  the  river  beyond  San  Lucar.  Particularly  the  goods  of 
foreign  merchants,  by  law  strictly  excluded  from  the  India  trade, 
found  their  way  to  America  by  means  of  this  fraud.  And  when, 
owing  to  the  decay  of  Spanish  industry,  the  manufactures  sup- 
plied to  the  colonies  were  drawn  more  and  more  from  France, 
England,  and  the  Netherlands,  the  evil  became  ineradicable. 
Alvarez  Osorio,  writing  in  the  second  half  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, says  that  in  his  time  contraband  trade  at  Seville  reached  the 
value  of  ten  million  pesos  a  year.^ 

The  Crown  was  even  more  solicitous  about  the  registration  of 
cargoes  coming  from  America.  For  in  the  colonies  supervision  was 
apt  to  be  more  lax  than  under  the  eyes  of  the  Casa's  numerous 
officials;  and  the  shipments  themselves,  consisting  usually  in  large 
measure  of  gold  and  silver  bullion,  were  of  greater  value  and  more 
easily  concealed  than  those  sent  from  Spain.  American  registers 
had  to  be  signed  by  the  treasury  officials  of  the  port  from  which 
the  gold,  silver  or  merchandise  was  originally  shipped,  and  be 
sworn  to  before  a  notary,  the  "  escribano  de  registros."  Even 
wages  and  personal  belongings  of  the  master  and  crew  were 
included,  as  well  as  letters  of  exchange  calling  for  payment  in 
Spain. 2  On  arrival  in  the  peninsula,  nothing  might  be  disem- 
barked without  permission,  and  all  bullion,  pearls  or  precious 
stones  had  to  be  deposited  at  the  Casa  de  Contratacion  before 
delivery  to  their  owners  or  consignees. 

The  law  also  provided  that  each  ship  bring  to  Seville,  in  addi- 
tion to  its  own  register,  a  copy  of  that  of  another  vessel  sailing 
from  the  same  port.^  This  was  intended  to  avert  the  confusion 

*  Extensidn  PolUica,  punto  iii,  par.  i. 

*  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xviii,  p.  423;  Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1552,  no.  158;  Recop. 
lib.  ix,  tit,  33,  ley  29;  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  17,  par.  15,  16. 

If,  as  in  the  smaller  West  Indian  islands,  the  port  was  of  too  little  consequence  to 
require  the  presence  of  royal  ofl5cials,  the  Cabildo  appointed  a  notary  to  take  charge 
of  such  business. 

'  Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1552,  no.  200.  This  rule  dates  back  to  1493.  The  instructions 
to  Bemal  Diaz  de  Pisa,  first  royal  contador  in  the  New  World,  required  that  three 
copies  of  the  registers  of  American  cargoes  be  sent  to  Spain,  one  by  the  supercargo, 
one  by  the  ship's  clerk,  and  one  by  another  vessel.  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xis, 
p.  222. 


64  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

arising  out  of  claims  for  damages,  insurance,  etc.,  should  a  ship  be 
lost  by  storm,  to  pirates,  or  through  some  other  mischance.  But 
the  rule,  though  so  eminently  reasonable,  was  rarely  effective.  If 
we  are  to  believe  Veitia  Linaje,  it  was  because  of  the  haste  with 
which  fleets  were  got  ready  and  dispatched,  a  haste  which  allowed 
no  time  for  correcting  the  original  registers,  let  alone  drawing  up 
duplicates.  And  although  orders  were  issued  requiring  the  ob- 
servance of  the  law,  they  were  never  enforced.^ 

The  greater  the  output  of  American  mines,  the  more  unavailing 
were  the  efforts  of  the  government  to  secure  a  record  of  the  pre- 
cious metals  coming  from  the  Indies.  It  was  forbidden  to  carry 
gold  or  silver  out  of  the  kingdom.  Yet  foreign-made  goods  im- 
ported into  Spain  or  the  colonies  had  to  be  paid  for,  and  bullion 
from  America  was  Spain's  most  valued  and  desirable  commodity. 
So  there  was  every  inducement  to  break  the  law,  and  unregistered 
consignments  were  disembarked  at  the  mouth  of  the  Guadal- 
quiver  or  in  Cadiz  harbor  before  the  inspectors  had  time  to  come 
on  board.  All  precious  metals  mined  in  the  Indies,  moreover,  had 
to  pay  a  certain  percentage  to  the  Crown,  generally  one-fifth, 
sometimes  less.  In  many  mining  districts,  a  considerable  amount 
of  bullion  was  smuggled  away  without  paying  the  royalty  and 
receiving  the  government  stamp;  and  as  all  bullion  sent  to  Spain 
unstamped  was  confiscate,  the  only  recourse  was  to  hide  it  from 
the  registry  officers.  This  particular  offense  robbed  the  king  twice 
of  his  revenues,  and  from  earliest  times  (ordinances  of  1510) 
incurred  rigorous  penalties. 

In  January,  1555,  the  flagship  of  the  fleet  commanded  by 
Cosme  Rodriguez  Farfan  was  wrecked  on  the  Zahara  coast,  be- 
tween Cadiz  and  Gibraltar,  and  two  hundred  were  drowned.  In 
salving  the  treasure,  it  was  found  that  more  was  being  recovered 
than  could  be  accounted  for  in  the  ship's  papers.  This  increased 
the  diligence  of  the  treasure  seekers,  till  it  finally  appeared  that 
while  150,000  pesos  had  been  legally  registered,  more  than  twice 
that  amount  was  carried  sub  rosa.^  In  the  seventeenth  century, 
resort  to  smuggling  seems  to  have  become  almost  universal.   In 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  17,  par.  18. 

2  Fernandez  Duro,  Armada  Espanola,  i,  p.  215. 


REGISTERS  AND  CUSTOMS  6$ 

i6i8,  in  the  galleons  commanded  by  the  Marquis  of  Cadereyta, 
nearly  400,000  ducats  of  imregistered  silver  were  seized.  In  1649 
the  government,  realizing  that  for  some  years  not  a  single  ship- 
ment of  gold,  in  coin  or  bullion,  had  appeared  in  the  registers  from 
America,  reduced  the  convoy  tax  on  gold  to  2  per  cent.  But  no 
appreciable  result  ensued.*  Not  only  merchants  and  foreigners, 
but  governors,  judges  and  other  officials  were  often  involved. 
After  1640,  witnesses  fourteen  years  of  age  were  permitted  to 
testify  in  such  cases,  and  no  "  fueros  ''  or  privileges  of  caste  might 
shield  the  offender  from  punishment.  From  1662  onward,  judges 
were  allowed  to  convict  on  the  testimony  of  government  officers 
alone.2  We  are  told  by  Veitia  Linaje  that  in  1653  so  much  of  the 
trade  with  America  escaped  registration,  and  therefore  taxation, 
that  over  90  per  cent  of  the  convoy  tax  was  contributed  by  the 
Crown,  on  bullion  brought  back  for  the  royal  exchequer.^  As 
early  as  1643  it  was  suggested  that  this  tax  be  abolished,  and  some 
other  form  of  impost  substituted.  The  question  was  discussed 
again  in  1644,  in  1648,  and  in  1659.  Finally  in  1660  the  entire 
machinery  of  registration,  customs  and  averia  was  abolished  for 
cargoes  from  the  Indies,  and  in  its  stead  a  fixed  sum  of  790,000 
ducats  was  levied  on  each  of  the  plate  fleets,  to  be  divided  between 
the  exporters  in  Andalusia,  the  royal  exchequer,  and  the  whole- 
sale merchants  of  Peru,  Mexico,  and  New  Granada.  And  tliis 
practice  continued  to  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century.* 

There  is  evidence,  however,  that  before  1660  the  Crown  was 
often  very  lenient  in  its  treatment  of  offenders  against  the  registry 
laws.  Sometimes  it  suspended  the  rules,  permitting  merchants  to 
escape  the  penalty  of  confiscation  by  declaring  before  the  Casa  de 
Contratacion  any  goods  or  treasure  which  arrived  from  the  Indies 
not  properly  registered.  At  other  times,  the  property  having  been 
seized,  the  owners  were  let  off  with  moderate  fines,  called  "  in- 
dultos."  ^  It  also  came  to  be  understood  that  if  bullion  got  as  far 

1  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  20,  par.  27. 

2  Ibid.,  lib.  ii,  cap.  17,  par.  7. 
'  Ibid.,  lib.  i,  cap.  20,  par.  47. 
*  Ibid.,  par.  46,  48. 

'  Ibid.,  lib.  ii,  cap.  17,  par.  19-24.  Instances  are  cited  in  1560, 1583, 1593,  iS95» 
1614,  1654,  and  1663. 


66  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

as  the  Seville  mint,  it  was  purged  of  any  stain  of  illegality  it  might 
in  an)rvvise  have  incurred.  A  general  pardon  was  issued  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1560,  covering  all  unregistered  goods  imported  in  that  or 
previous  years,  provided  a  declaration  was  made  (manifestacion) 
of  the  contraband  articles,  and  the  customs  and  other  royal  dues 
had  been  paid  in  America  before  embarkation.  The  concession 
was  extended  to  include  even  goods  carried  directly  to  Portugal, 
France  or  any  other  foreign  country,  if  the  goods  were  brought 
back  to  Spain  within  four  months  —  a  naive  proposal  which  prob- 
ably met  with  no  enthusiastic  response.  The  decree  added,  how- 
ever, that  thereafter  failure  to  meet  the  required  f ormaHties  would 
involve  all  the  penalties  prescribed  by  law,  and  any  one  who 
exported  from  America  directly  to  foreign  parts  be  liable  to  death 
and  forfeiture  of  property.^ 

Nevertheless  concessions  continued  to  be  made  from  time  to 
time.  In  1593,  and  again  in  1595,  a  pardon  was  issued  covering  all 
persons,  except  royal  officials,  who  made  a  declaration  before  the 
proper  authorities  of  goods  carried  sub  rosa  on  the  fleets  of  those 
years.  And  although  in  1 618  ^^manifestaciones"  were  expressly 
prohibited,  the  prohibition  was  not  observed.  Indeed,  clemency 
was  much  more  frequently  displayed  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
under  the  weaker  Hapsburgs,  than  in  the  sixteenth.  In  the  time  of 
Charles  V  and  Philip  II,  even  admirals  were  punished  with  im- 
prisonment or  forfeiture  for  attempting  to  carry  merchandise 
unregistered  to  the  Indies  for  their  own  private  profit,  or  for  con- 
cealing a  few  bars  of  silver  among  their  personal  belongings. 
Veitia  Linaje  would  lead  us  to  believe  that  in  his  own  time  (1672) 
such  rigor  was  uncommon.  Manifestations  and  indults  had 
become  the  rule. 

There  should  be  no  illusions,  however,  as  to  the  motives  of  the 
government  in  this  matter  of  manifestations.  The  Crown  did  not 
intend  to  let  goods  actually  denounced  or  apprehended  escape. 
The  concession  applied  only  to  articles  which  were  effectively  con- 
cealed, and  might,  if  undeclared,  have  escaped  the  inspectors 
altogether.  If  the  king  seemed  very  lenient  on  occasion,  there  was 
always  an  ulterior  reason.  Either,  owing  to  the  mutilation  or  loss 

1  Antuiiez  y  Acevedo,  pp.  156  f. 


REGISTERS  AND  CUSTOMS  67 

of  registers,  it  was  necessary  to  know  more  exactly  what  a  fleet  or 
vessel  carried ;  or,  finding  the  registers  suspiciously  brief,  he  was 
solicitous  for  the  collection  of  royal  dues. 

Clandestine  trade  always  increases  in  proportion  to  the  number 
and  rigor  of  the  prohibitions  against  it.  And  in  Seville  this  could 
not  fail  to  be  so,  when  there  were  so  many  formalities  to  be 
observed,  so  many  conditions  to  be  met  relating  to  the  nature  and 
origin  of  goods  and  the  antecedents  of  their  owners.  On  the  other 
hand,  this  secret  traffic  could  have  assumed  such  enormous  pro- 
portions only  with  the  connivance  of  the  officials  appointed  to 
prevent  it.  If  the  Casa,  and  the  Council  of  the  Indies  behind  the 
Casa,  had  insisted  upon  a  rigid  execution  of  the  law,  detection  in 
most  cases  must  have  been  inevitable.  The  India  House  probably 
compared  favorably  with  analogous  institutions  in  other  coun- 
tries. Accidental  irregularities  were  difficult  to  avoid  in  an  organ- 
ization of  such  varied  functions.  But  they  cannot  be  made  to 
account  for  the  widespread  disorders  in  the  export  and  import 
trade  with  America.  Abuses  so  widely  prevalent,  moreover,  could 
certainly  not  have  passed  imperceived  by  the  Crown.  The  like- 
liest explanation  is  that  the  king,  being  always  in  debt  to  the 
great  merchant-bankers  for  large  sums  of  money,  and  dependent 
on  them  for  future  favors,  was  in  no  position  to  act  with  the  rigor 
which  the  situation  demanded. 

Registration  was  originally  designed  to  make  smuggling  more 
difiicult  and  dangerous.  But  it  also  facilitated  the  collection  of 
royal  imposts,  and  that  soon  became  a  principal  consideration. 
Of  such  imposts  there  were  chiefly  two,  the  averia  and  the  almo- 
jarifazgo.  The  first  to  be  established  at  Seville  was  the  averia. 

The  averia  ^  was  a  contribution  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the 
convoys  or  other  fleets  maintained  for  the  defense  of  the  India 
navigation.  From  the  beginning  the  need  of  such  defense  was 
patent,  and  after  the  first  quarter  of  the  sixteenth  century  it  be- 

^  Averia,  derived  from  an  Arab  word  meaning  damage  or  loss.  Specifically 
applied  to  the  damage  suffered  by  merchandise  or  other  articles  on  the  sea.  Sol6r- 
zano  defines  the  tax  as  the  "  page  de  la  seguridad  que  daban  los  galeones,  al  que  se 
agregaba  para  su  reparto  el  valor  de  los  averlas  6  danos  que  en  la  navegaci6n  suf- 
rieran  las  mercaderlas." 


68  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

came  a  matter  of  deep  concern.  Corsairing  had  been  an  institu- 
tion among  the  seafaring  peoples  of  western  Europe  centuries 
before  the  discovery  of  America.  French,  EngHsh,  and  Irish 
pirates  not  only  infested  the  waters  about  Great  Britain,  but 
penetrated  farther  southward  to  the  shores  of  Spain,  Portugal, 
and  the  Azores.  Sometimes  they  sailed  under  letters  of  marque 
from  the  authorities  at  home,  but  generally  they  pursued  their 
primitive  calling  regardless  of  the  circumstances  of  international 
politics.  Indeed,  in  the  time  of  the  Renaissance,  when  national 
states  were  just  emerging,  and  diplomacy  was  in  its  confused, 
immoral  beginnings,  it  was  often  impossible  to  define  satisfac- 
torily what  the  status  of  international  relations  might  be.  After 
the  discovery  of  the  western  hemisphere,  the  field  of  activity  of 
the  corsairs  was  immensely  widened.  They  tried  to  appropriate 
to  themselves  a  share  of  the  reputed  riches  of  the  New  World  by 
attack  upon  the  Spanish  argosies  returning  from  those  distant  El 
Dorados.  They  hovered  about  the  archipelagos  of  the  Azores  and 
the  Canaries,  where  vessels  from  the  west  were  accustomed  to 
seek  their  first  landfall.  And  when  Spanish  ships  of  war  made 
their  presence  precarious,  they  transferred  their  operations  to 
American  waters.  Spanish  records  of  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth 
century  are  full  of  references  to  the  capture  of  vessels  in  those 
regions,  and  to  attacks  on  Havana,  Santiago  de  Cuba,  San 
Domingo,  and  other  towns  on  the  coasts  of  the  Caribbean  Sea. 

Columbus  met  French  corsairs  near  the  Canary  Islands  on  his 
voyage  in  1492 ;  and  he  declared  on  returning  from  his  third  that 
he  had  sailed  for  the  island  of  Madeira  by  a  new  route  to  avoid  a 
French  fleet  awaiting  him  near  Cape  St.  Vincent.^  As  early  as 
1 501  a  royal  ordinance  prescribed  the  construction  of  carracks  to 
pursue  such  privateers,  and  offered  a  premium  to  those  whose 
measurements  exceeded  150  tons.^  In  15 12  Ferdiuand  expressed 
surprise  to  the  King  of  Portugal  because  he  had  received  in  his 
ports  French  boats  cruising  about  in  wait  for  ships  from  the 
Indies;  and  he  ordered  two  armed  ships  to  proceed  to  the  Ca- 
naries to  meet  incoming  vessels.^  In  15 13  a  royal  cedula  to  the 

*  Marcel,  Les  corsaires  franqais  au  xvi  siicle  dans  les  Antilles,  p.  7. 
'  Ibid.y  p.  8.  '  Fernandez  Duro,  op.  cit.,  i,  p.  201,  note  i. 


REGISTERS  AND  CUSTOMS     ^  69 

officers  of  the  Casa  de  Contratadon  directed  that  two  caravels  be 
sent  to  guard  the  coasts  of  Cuba  and  assure  the  India  navigation 
against  French  pirates.^  The  danger  greatly  increased  after  1520, 
with  the  beginning  of  the  long  wars  between  Charles  V  and 
Francis  I;  while  the  fame  of  the  riches  found  by  the  **  conquista- 
dores  "  in  Mexico  excited  the  avarice  not  only  of  adventurous 
sailors  and  shipowners,  but  also  of  merchants  and  gentlemen  of 
depleted  fortune.  The  year  152 1  seems  to  have  witnessed  the 
first  serious  disaster.  Two  caravels  laden  with  treasure  were  cap- 
tured by  the  French,  to  the  dismay  of  the  Seville  merchants;  and 
in  response  to  their  clamors,  the  government  hastily  sent  a  small 
squadron  under  D.  Pedro  Manrique  to  patrol  the  waters  about 
Cape  St.  Vincent.  This  is  the  first  recorded  occasion  for  the  col- 
lection of  averia.  The  king  ordered  the  expense  of  the  armada  to 
be  met  by  a  tax  levied  on  all  ships,  merchandise,  and  bullion  arriv- 
ing in  Spain  from  America  or  the  Canary  Islands,  either  on  the 
account  of  the  Crown  or  of  private  individuals,  and  levied  also  on 
any  coast  towns  exposed  to  damage  by  the  corsairs.^ 

In  the  following  spring,  as  the  French  danger  persisted,  three 
caravels  were  fitted  out  under  command  of  Domingo  Alonso  de 
Amilivia,  which  convoyed  as  far  as  the  Canaries  eleven  vessels 
sailing  to  the  Indies.  At  the  same  time,  at  the  instance  of  the 
merchants,  was  proposed  the  estabhshment  of  a  permanent  ar- 
mada to  poKce  the  waters  between  Spain  and  the  Azores.  It  was 
to  be  supported  by  a  regular  tax,  similar  to  the  contribution  of  the 
year  previous,  imposed  on  all  trade  with  the  Indies,  Azores, 
Canaries,  Madeira,  and  the  coast  of  Barbary.  The  project  was  en- 
trusted to  the  contador  of  the  India  House,  Juan  Lopez  de 
Recalde,  and  to  representatives  of  the  Seville  exporters.  They 
were  empowered  to  assess  and  collect  the  necessary  funds,  appoint 
captains  and  other  officials,  hire  ships,  ^  wages,  and  provide 
artillery,  munitions,  and  stores.  The  proceeds  of  all  prizes  were  to 
be  devoted  to  the  armada's  maintenance.^  The  rate  of  the  tax  is 
not  stated,  but  was  probably  not  much  over  one  per  cent. 

*  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  vi,  p.  3. 

'  Herrera,  dec.  iii,  lib.  i,  cap.  14;  Fernandez  Duro,  op.  cit.,  i,  pp.  202  ff. 
'  N.M.C.,  xxi,  no.  3  (decree  of  June  13,  1522);  Register  of  the  Council  of  the 
Indies  (Academia  de  la  Historia,  Madrid),  fol.  4  v*'  (agreement  with  the  Seville  mer- 


70  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

Meantime  the  squadron  of  Domingo  Alonso  had  proved  in- 
efifectual  for  the  protection  of  American  shipping.  In  1 5  2  2  Cortes 
remitted  to  Spain  in  three  caravels  the  king's  share  of  the  plunder 
of  Mexico,  besides  gifts  to  his  parents  and  to  friends  of  influence. 
Two  of  the  caravels  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  French  on  reaching 
the  Azores;  the  third  escaped  by  coming  to  anchor  without  being 
seen  in  Santa  Maria.  In  May,  1523,  Captain  Alonso 's  ships  arrived 
there  to  escort  the  remaining  treasure  home.  But  near  Cape  St. 
Vincent,  the  "  cape  of  surprises,"  six  privateers  led  by  Jean  Florin 
of  La  Rochelle  (by  some  identified  with  the  explorer,  Giovanni 
da  Verrazano)  captured  two  of  the  fleet,  and  secured  all  of  the 
Mexican  booty.  Florin  also  seized  at  the  same  time,  says  the  his- 
torian Gomara,  another  vessel  from  the  West  Indies  laden  with 
62,000  ducats  in  gold,  600  marcs  of  pearls  and  2000  quarters  of 
sugar.  1 

How  long  the  "  armada  de  la  carrera  de  Indias  "  established  in 

1522  was  maintained  is  not  very  clear.  There  is  some  evidence 
that  it  was  disbanded  three  years  later.^  If  so,  it  was  recreated  in 
1528,  for  in  May  of  that  year,  owing  to  the  return  of  the  corsairs, 
a  new  contract  was  concluded  with  the  merchants  for  the  support 
of  a  fleet  to  protect  the  India  navigation  and  guard  the  coasts  of 
Andalusia.^  The  Casa  de  Contratacion  was  put  in  charge  of  the 
business,  and  artillery  was  lent  by  the  dukes  of  Medina  Sidonia, 
MedinaceK,  Arcos,  and  by  other  noblemen.  Perhaps  provision  for 
such  a  squadron  was  remade  every  few  years,  for  we  find  decrees 
and  contracts  for  similar  undertakings  in  1533,  in  1535,  and  again 
in  1536.^  Generally  four  armed  vessels  are  mentioned,  and  their 
radius  of  action  confined  to  the  waters  of  the  Atlantic  between 
Andalusia  and  the  archipelagos. 

chants,  Sept.  11,  1522);  A.  de  I.,  Patr.  2.  5.  1/24,  no.  i  (reports  to  the  Crown  in 

1523  and  1525  of  the  administration  of  the  averia). 

^  Florin  was  captured  ofif  St.  Vincent  by  a  Spanish  galleon  in  1527,  brought 
prisoner  to  Cadiz  and  hanged  at  Colmenar  de  Arenas.  Fernandez  Duro,  op.  cit:,  i, 
p.  206. 

*  A.  de  I.,  139.  I.  6,  lib.  10,  fol.  i  fif.;  lib.  ii,  fol.  42. 

'  Ibid.,  139. 1.7,  lib.  13,  fol.  118  ff.;  Reg.  of  C.  of  Indies,  fol.  7  v°;  Herrera,  dec. 
iv,  lib.  V,  cap.  4. 

*  A.  de  I.,  139.  I.  8,  lib.  16,  fol.  160-169;  lib.  17,  fol.  108;  Reg.  of  C.  of  Indies, 
fol.  8  v°,  60  v°,  61. 


REGISTERS  AND  CUSTOMS  7 1 

The  system  of  little  squadrons  cruising  about  the  capes  and  the 
Azores  proved  insufficient  to  cope  with  the  increasing  piracy, 
and  the  government  was  driven  to  other  expedients.  Ever  since 
about  1526  merchant  vessels  had  been  forbidden  to  sail  alone  to  or 
from  America.  They  must  go  in  flotillas  for  mutual  aid  and  de- 
fense, armed  according  to  rules  already  promulgated  in  1522.  In 
1537,  apparently  for  the  first  time,  a  royal  armada  sailed  to  the 
West  Indies  to  insure  the  safe  transport  of  gold  and  silver  to 
Spain.  It  was  the  first  of  the  great  treasure  fleets,  consisted,  with 
merchant  vessels,  of  some  twenty  ships,  besides  smaller,  lateen- 
rigged  lighters,  and  was  conmianded  by  Blasco  Nunez  Vela,  the 
man  who  later  went  out  as  the  first  viceroy  of  Peru.  In  that  year 
the  Emperor  and  Francis  I  were  again  at  war,  French  corsairs  were 
unusually  active  in  Caribbean  waters,  and  it  was  reported  that  in 
Brittany  a  fleet  of  thirteen  privateers  was  preparing  to  prey  on 
Spanish  shipping  between  Havana  and  Nombre  de  Dios.^  An- 
other armada  was  dispatched  for  treasure  in  the  summer  of  1542, 
under  Martin  Alonso  de  los  Rios,  which  returned  in  May  of 
the  following  year.  And  in  August,  1543,  at  the  solicitation  of  the 
commercial  interests  of  Seville,  decrees  were  issued  making  the 
sailing  of  vessels  in  yearly,  protected  fleets  a  permanent  and  obli- 
gatory rule.  This  further  step  again  coincided  with  a  war  between 
Spain  and  France.  Although  the  new  orders  were  not  in  the 
beginning  consistently  observed,  from  1550  onward  the  system  of 
convoys  between  Spain  and  America  was  well  established,  and  the 
averia  a  recognized  and  regular  contribution. 

The  preparations  and  negotiations  in  1552,  in  anticipation  of 
the  sailing  of  the  fleet  of  Bartolome  Carreno,  may  be  cited  as  a 
fair  illustration  of  the  situation  toward  the  close  of  the  reign  of 
Charles  V.^  The  convoy  or  armada  was  to  consist  of  four  ships 
ranging  in  size  from  250  to  300  tons,  and  of  two  caravels  of  80  to 
100  tons,  and  was  to  carry  360  soldiers.  It  was  expected  to  ac- 
company the  merchant  fleet  to  the  West  Indies,  and  after  the 
vessels  had  parted  for  their  respective  ports,  make  Havana  its 
headquarters,  whence  it  might  scour  the  neighboring  seas  for 
corsairs.    At  the  end  of  three  months,  the  vessels  gathered  at 

^  A.  de  I.,  Patr.  2. 5. 5/13, no.  i,  pt.  i,  ramo  i.        2  a.  de  I.,  36. 4. 1/7,  ramo  i. 


72  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

Havana  from  New  Spain,  Honduras,  Tierra  Firme,  and  the  islands 
were  to  be  convoyed  back  to  the  Guadalquivir.  The  armada  was 
to  be  fitted  and  provisioned  for  nine  months,  the  time  calculated 
as  necessary  for  the  entire  voyage,  and  the  cost  defrayed  by  a 
contribution  of  2  J  per  cent,  levied  on  the  cargoes  coming  and 
going,  and  also  on  the  value  of  any  iminsured  vessels  in  the  fleet. 
The  Crown  was  to  pay  on  the  same  basis  as  the  private  merchant, 
and  any  surplus  remitted  after  the  voyage  was  completed. 

To  find  the  ready  money  needed  for  preparing  the  armada, 
loans  were  to  be  solicited  from  traders  interested  in  the  fleet,  in 
proportion  to  the  amount  each  had  ventured,  and  from  other  mer- 
chants as  the  officers  of  the  Casa  and  the  Consulado  saw  fit.  Any 
remaining  deficiency  could  be  met  by  advances  from  the  royal 
treasurers,  so  that  nothing  might  delay  the  sailing  of  the  fleet. 

These  arrangements  had  been  made  in  the  middle  of  February. 
In  April  work  on  the  convoy  seems  scarcely  to  have  begun.  Mer- 
chants waiting  at  San  Lucar  sent  complaints  to  the  Crown  that 
they  were  losing  valuable  time  and  the  cargoes  spoiling.  They 
begged  for  leave  to  sail  alone,  as  their  ships  were  strong,  well 
armed  and  manned.  The  regent,  Philip,  to  hasten  the  departure, 
ordered  the  Casa  to  choose  six  of  the  best  merchantmen  bound  for 
Nombre  de  Dios,  remove  part  of  the  cargo,  and  fit  them  out  as 
men-of-war.  The  "  armada  "  thus  constituted  was  to  sail  directly 
to  Tierra  Firme,  instead  of  waiting  at  Havana,  and  on  the  return 
voyage  call  at  the  latter  place  to  pick  up  the  rest  of  the  fleet.  All 
the  gold  and  silver  brought  back  was  to  be  shipped  for  greater 
security  on  the  six  armed  merchantmen. 

It  seems  that,  meanwhile,  the  officials  of  the  Casa  raised  many 
objections  as  to  the  rate  of  the  averia  and  the  manner  of  col- 
lection. It  was  inconvenient  to  collect  on  outgoing  vessels,  for  one 
could  not  know  till  the  last  moment  which  ships  would  sail.  Those 
intending  to  go  were  sometimes  unready  at  the  last  moment  and 
compelled  to  wait  over  till  the  next  fleet;  while  others,  which  had 
not  planned  to  sail,  found  themselves  unexpectedly  in  a  position 
to  depart  at  once.  Moreover,  it  was  impossible  to  estimate  before- 
hand the  actual  cost  of  the  armada,  for  expenditure  was  contin- 
uous and  varied  from  day  to  day  with  the  fluctuation  in  the  cost  of 


REGISTERS  AND  CUSTOMS  73 

supplies.  The  same  objection  applied  to  assessments  after  the 
return  voyage.  If  made  only  when  the  expense  of  the  armada  had 
been  computed,  it  would  cause  great  delays  and  hold  up  the  goods 
and  bullion  of  the  merchants.  Apparently  the  Casa  offered  an 
alternative  scheme,  although  we  know  nothing  of  its  details.  A 
lower  rate  was  also  recommended,  i§  per  cent. 

The  regent,  after  consultation  with  the  Consulado,  decided 
that  these  objections  were  invalid.  The  suggested  rate  was  too 
low,  for  outgoing  cargoes  were  of  great  bulk  and  comparatively 
little  value,  while  the  character  of  incoming  cargoes  was  unknown. 
A  tax  of  2 1  per  cent  must  therefore  be  levied  on  all  goods,  whether 
the  vessel  actually  succeeded  in  sailing  with  the  armada  in  ques- 
tion or  not.  Later,  however,  the  officials  in  Seville  were  au- 
thorized to  alter  the  rate  as  they  deemed  most  advisable;  and  in 
August,  as  the  original  fourteen  or  fifteen  merchantmen  had  in- 
creased to  more  than  thirty,  the  rate  was  lowered  to  2  per  cent. 
The  fleet,  apparently,  did  not  sail  till  near  the  close  of  the  year. 
It  returned  in  the  following  October. 

This  episode  is  a  sufficient  indication  that,  in  1552  at  least,  the 
averia  was  not  yet  reduced  to  an  established  system.  It  was  still 
a  question  how  the  money  was  to  be  collected,  and  whether  both 
outgoing  and  incoming  cargoes  should  pay.  That  merchantmen 
should  be  compelled  to  lie  in  the  roadstead  at  San  Lucar  for 
almost  a  year  awaiting  the  organization  of  a  convoy,  seems  an 
intolerable  state  of  affairs.  Spanish  administration  was  already 
choked  by  a  procrastination  which  was  inauspicious  for  the 
reasonable  development  of  commercial  traffic. 

In  March,  1573,  the  rules  governing  the  collection  and  disburse- 
ment of  the  averia  were  codified  in  a  series  of  forty-three  ordi- 
nances addressed  to  the  Casa  de  Contratacion.^  Every  detail  of 
administration  was  provided  for  with  characteristic  forethought 
and  exactness.  The  general  oversight  of  this  royal  service  was 
entrusted  jointly  to  the  jueces  oficiales  and  the  prior  and  consuls 
of  the  merchant  gild;  the  imimediate  control  to  a  judge,  a  deputy 

^  Encinas,  iii,  p.  174:  "  De  las  averlas  que  se  repartan  sobre  las  mercaderias  que 
van  y  vienen  de  las  Indias,  para  la  costa  que  hacen  las  armadas  para  seguridad  de 
las  flotas,  y  otros  gastos  d  ellas  pertenecientes." 


74  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

auditor  and  a  collector  (receptor)  of  the  averia.^  There  was 
also  a  notary  or  scrivener  appointed  for  each  fleet  who  attested  all 
official  acts  connected  with  the  administration  of  the  tax;  and 
a  "  veedor  "  or  overseer  to  accompany  the  fleet  and  see  that  the 
funds  were  honestly  and  economically  expended. 

The  officials  of  the  Casa,  with  the  advice  of  the  prior  and  con- 
suls, estimated  the  minimum  cost  of  providing  the  convoy  for 
each  fleet,  and  assessed  the  averia  in  time  to  have  it  collected 
when  the  merchandise  was  registered.  After  the  return  from  the 
Indies,  another  estimate  was  made  of  all  expenses  incurred  in 
maintaining  the  convoy  or  in  any  other  way  connected  with  the 
security  of  the  fleet,  and  that  amount  levied  on  the  gold,  silver  and 
raw  materials  brought  back  to  Spain.  The  funds  were  kept  in  a 
coffer  with  three  locks  (area  de  tres  Haves)  in  the  Casa,  one  key 
being  entrusted  to  each  of  the  officers  immediately  in  charge. 

No  articles  of  whatever  description  shipped  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  trade  escaped  payment  of  the  averia,  nor  might  privi- 
leges or  exemptions,  corporate  or  personal,  be  alleged  against  it.^ 
Even  royal  bullion  and  remittances  from  colonial  treasurers  were 
subject  to  this  tax.  After  1564,  it  is  true,  an  exception  had  been 
made  in  favor  of  goods  from  the  Indies  which  represented  the 
wages  of  sailors,  or  the  profits  of  ship  captains  accruing  from  their 
freights.  But  the  exemption  did  not  extend  to  merchants  who 
purchased  ships  and  loaded  them  with  their  own  goods,  unless  the 
merchant  himself  went  aboard  to  act  as  bona-fide  master  or  pilot. 
In  the  latter  case,  the  proportion  of  the  return  cargo  representing 
the  normal  freight  charges  had  to  be  sworn  to  before  the  Casa, 
and  was  entered  free.  Every  shipowner  who  sent  out  vessels 
under  command  of  another  person  had  to  pay  averia  on  the 
freights  collected.  The  exemption  applied  only  to  those  personally 

1  See  Chapter  III,  pp.  51-53- 

The  judge  of  the  averia,  almost  invariably  an  officer  of  the  Casa,  had  primary 
jurisdiction  over  all  cases  arising  out  of  the  administration  of  the  tax.  Cadiz, 
always  jealous  of  Seville's  ascendency,  protested  against  the  transference  of  suits 
to  the  neighboring  city,  but  without  success.    A.  de  I.,  144.  i.  14,  informaciones. 

2  Sometimes  remittances  for  a  pious  object,  as  the  canonization  of  a  saint,  or  the 
redemption  of  captives  in  Barbary,  or  lamps,  monstrances,  etc.,  for  Spanish 
churches,  were  exempted  by  special  decree.  Quicksilver  exported  by  the  Crown 
was  also  free. 


REGISTERS  AND  CUSTOMS  7$ 

engaged  in  the  sea-faring  profession.^  Apparently  the  practice 
had  arisen  of  defrauding  the  government  under  cover  of  this  rule. 
India  merchants  exported  goods  in  their  own  vessels,  and  brought 
back  their  value  in  gold  and  silver,  registering  everything  as 
freight  returns.  In  the  seventeenth  century,  generals,  admirals 
and  captains  of  the  armadas  were  also  allowed  to  bring  in  free  a 
certain  amount  of  coin  supposed  to  represent  their  legitimate 
perquisites  during  the  voyage. 

The  oath  and  sureties  of  the  receptor  upon  entry  into  office; 
the  rules  to  be  observed  by  the  contador  to  insure  completeness 
and  accuracy  in  his  accounts;  the  obligations  of  the  scrivener; 
the  signing  and  countersigning  of  warrants  and  drafts;  the  final 
audit  of  all  accounts  connected  with  the  administration  of  the  tax, 
from  those  of  the  contador,  through  the  receptor,  factor  and 
admiral,  to  the  captains  of  the  ships  comprising  the  armada ;  all 
was  provided  for  in  the  ordinances  of  1573  with  admirable 
clearness  and  order,  but  with  a  prolixity  associated  with  Spanish 
administrative  documents  in  the  sixteenth  century.  Every  entry 
in  the  ledgers  of  receipt  and  expenditure  had  to  be  signed  by  the 
three  "llaveros,"  and  attested  by  the  scrivener.  All  purchases 
must  be  made  by  the  factor  of  the  Casa  (later  by  the  purveyor- 
general)  or  his  representative,  with  the  aid  of  the  veedor  and  the 
scrivener,  and  a  report,  certified  by  these  three,  with  detailed 
prices,  presented  at  the  India  House.  No  money  might  be  with- 
drawn from  the  coffers  without  an  order  signed  by  the  jueces  ofi- 
ciales.  It  was  the  special  care  of  the  latter,  moreover,  to  see  that 
the  armada  sailed  with  an  adequate  supply  of  wine,  vinegar,  fish, 
powder,  lead  and  other  articles  necessary  for  its  provisioning  and 
defense.  For  such  things  were  scarce  in  the  colonies,  and  unless  a 
sufficiency  for  the  entire  voyage  was  carried  from  Spain,  could  be 
had  only  at  excessive  prices.  Finally,  within  two  months  of 
the  return  of  a  fleet  to  Seville,  the  completed  accounts  had  to  be 
forwarded  for  examination  to  the  Council  of  the  Indies.  Other- 
wise a  commissioner  was  sent  by  the  Council  at  the  contador's 
expense  to  conclude  the  accounts  and  render  the  report. 

^  Recop.,  lib.  ix,  tit.  9,  leyes  20-22.  According  to  Veitia  Linaje,  after  1613  all 
freights,  whatever  the  circumstances,  were  exempted. 


76  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

In  the  seventeenth  century,  a  contribution  to  the  averia  was 
required  from  persons  who  sailed  as  passengers  in  ships  of  war 
composing  the  armadas.  There  is  no  law  to  this  effect  in  the  Re- 
copilacion  of  1681,  but  Veitia  Linaje  assures  us  that  it  was  the  rule 
in  his  day,  and  had  been  from  time  immemorial.^  Every  passenger 
on  the  galleons  paid  twenty  ducats  to  the  averia,  not  only  for 
himself,  but  for  each  of  his  servants,  dependents  or  slaves.  The 
rule  included  bishops  and  government  officials,  and  even  vice- 
roys and  their  families. 

As  the  averia  was  reckoned  lipon  the  cost  of  convoying  each 
individual  fleet  to  and  from  America,  the  rate  was  not  fixed  or 
constant.  Veitia  Linaje  says  that  until  1587  it  was  usually  be- 
tween 4  and  5  per  cent.^  There  is  evidence,  however,  that  it  fluc- 
tuated considerably.  According  to  Herrera,  in  1525  Pedro  Xuarez 
de  Castillo,  treasurer  of  the  Casa  and  at  that  time  in  general 
charge  of  the  averia,  received  orders  that  the  tax  must  not  exceed 
I  per  cent.  But  in  1528,  when  the  armada  for  the  protection  of  the 
India  navigation  was  reestabHshed,  it  was  raised  to  5  per  cent.^ 
In  August,  1542,  after  the  departure  of  the  fleet  of  Alonso  de  los 
Rios,  and  because  of  the  ubiquity  of  French  privateers,  there  were 
orders  to  the  Casa  to  equip  another  armada  of  six  ships  and  six 
caravels,  to  guard  the  coasts  and  await  Rios'  return.  The  averia 
was  to  be  6  per  cent,  levied  presumably  on  the  cargoes  expected 
from  America.  The  merchants  objected,  and  the  rate  was  prob- 
ably reduced.  At  all  events,  in  the  next  year  the  averia  is  re- 
ferred to  as  a  tax  of  2|  per  cent."*  From  other  data  found  in  what 
remain  of  the  papers  of  the  early  receptores  de  averia,  the  follow- 
ing figures  were  obtained :  ^ 

The  rate  in  1552-53  was  about  2  per  cent. 
"  1554-55  "        5        " 

1557-58  «        4       " 

"  1559-60  "  2^        " 

1563-64  "  I  « 

^  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  20,  par.  14. 

*  Ihid.,  par.  11. 

3  Herrera,  dec.  iv,  lib.  5,  cap.  4. 

*  N.M.C.,  vol.  xxi,  no.  11;  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  20,  par.  11. 

*  See  Appendix  III. 


REGISTERS  AND  CUSTOMS  JJ 

The  total  expenditures  for  the  convoys  in  certain  years  of  this 
period  were: 

i537~38 — (fleet  of  Blasco  Nufiez  Vela) 12,712,600  maravedis 

1552-53 — (  "      "  Bartolom^  Carreno) 21,296,610         " 

1555-56 — (  "      "  Pedro  Men6ndez  de  Avil^s) . .  37,613,525         " 

1557-58 — (  "      "  Pedro  de  las  Roelas) 30,639,576         " 

1559-60 — (   "      "      "      "  "       )  10,922,179         " 

After  the  peace  of  Cateau  Cambresis,  the  danger  from  French 
corsairs  became  less.  Catherine  de  Medici,  finding  herself  by  the 
sudden  death  of  her  husband,  Henry  II,  virtually  arbi tress  of 
France,  determined  thereafter  to  keep  in  her  own  hands  the 
balance  of  power.  Beset  by  rival  parties  intriguing  for  the  control 
of  the  kingdom,  she  married  her  fourteen  year  old  daughter, 
Elizabeth,  to  Philip  II,  and  hoped  by  this  dynastic  union  to  make 
her  own  interests  secure.  Her  policy  was  not  a  complete  success. 
Neither  Philip  nor  Catherine  would  be  a  tool  for  the  designs  and 
ambitions  of  the  other.  Yet,  as  neither  dared  brave  the  open  hos- 
tility of  the  other,  for  many  years  there  was  comparative  peace 
and  friendship  between  the  two  Crowns.  And  French  privateer- 
ing, so  constant  during  the  reign  of  the  Emperor,  ceased  to  be  a 
nightmare  in  the  countinghouses  of  Seville. 

Meanwhile,  a  new  danger  was  arising  from  another  quarter.  In 
1563  John  Hawkins  appeared  in  the  West  Indies  with  his  first 
cargo  of  Guinea  blacks.  Three  years  later  he  sailed  with  his  friend 
and  pupil,  Francis  Drake,  again  on  a  slaving  voyage,  but  also  pre- 
pared to  indulge  in  piracy  if  opportxmity  offered.  They  stormed 
Rio  de  la  Hacha  on  tierra  firme,  but  encoimtered  a  Spanish  fleet 
in  the  harbor  of  Vera  Cruz  and  were  badly  worsted.  The  pace  had 
been  set,  however,  and  Philip  was  soon  to  see  these  freebooters 
with  their  compeers,  Clifford,  Grenville  and  the  rest,  rifling 
Spanish  ships  and  sacking  towns  on  the  Main  with  a  vigor  and 
pertinacity  that  outrivalled  the  French. 

The  averia  tended,  therefore,  to  increase  rather  than  to  di- 
minish. In  1587  it  was  4  per  cent;  in  1596,  owing  to  the  exigencies 
of  the  naval  war  with  England,  it  was  7  per  cent;  and  a  like  figure 
in  1627.  In  the  seventeenth  century,  with  the  growth  of  contra- 
band trade,  as  the  registered  cargoes  decreased  in  bulk  and  value 


78  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

the  rate  of  the  averia  became  correspondingly  higher.  In  effect, 
those  who  obeyed  the  law  were  penalized,  and  the  result  was  to 
drive  merchants  to  seek  new  means  of  fraud,  new  avenues  of 
escape  from  an  intolerable  situation.  All  the  efforts  of  the  Council 
of  the  Indies  and  its  officers  were  insufficient  to  cope  with  the 
problem.  Affairs  moved  in  a  vicious  circle,  the  increase  of  one 
irregularity  merely  serving  to  accentuate  the  other.  Finally,  in 
June,  1644,  Philip  IV  issued  a  cedula  promising  that  thenceforth 
the  averia  on  registered  commodities  from  the  Indies  would  never 
exceed  12  per  cent,  and  that  for  any  deficit  the  royal  exchequer 
would  be  responsible.  But  even  12  per  cent  was  double  the  rate 
of  former  times,  and  this  display  of  royal  clemency  did  not 
induce  merchants  to  conform  to  the  law.  As  fraud  continued  un- 
abated, the  Crown  was  constrained  in  1660  to  make  the  radical 
change  in  the  system  of  collection  already  referred  to. 

At  various  times  before  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
the  mode  of  administration  established  by  the  laws  of  1573  was 
suspended,  and  the  collection  of  the  averia,  with  the  organization 
of  convoys,  let  out  by  contract  (asiento).  The  date  of  the  first 
asiento  is  imcertain.  According  to  Veitia  Linaje,  a  bargain  of  this 
nature  was  concluded  in  1598  with  the  Consulado  acting  for  the 
merchants  of  Seville.  Of  its  conditions  he  had  no  knowledge. 
There  is  evidence,  however,  that  there  were  agreements  earlier 
than  1598.  Probably  the  first  was  in  1591,  when  the  prior  and 
consuls  offered  for  the  privilege  to  contribute  80,000  ducats  to  the 
maintenance  of  ten  galleons  and  four  "  pataches ''  or  dispatch 
boats.  In  1602  and  in  1608  other  asientos  were  made  with  the 
Consulado,  of  which  more  information  survives.  That  of  1 608  was 
to  endure  for  six  years,  during  which  time  the  "  asentistas  "  were 
again  to  furnish  annually  eight  or  ten  armed  galleons  and  four 
smaller  vessels,  with  a  combined  burden  of  5200  tons  and  carrying 
2500  mariners  and  soldiers.  From  i6i4to  1617  the  older  form  of 
administration  was  revived,  but  agreements  with  the  Consulado 
and  other  participants  were  renewed  in  1618  (three  years),  162 1 
(six  years),  1627  (six  years),  1633  (three  years)  and  1640  (three 
years).  The  partners  in  the  asiento  of  1640  advanced  various 
sums,  and  the  king  lent  257,000  ducats  to  the  enterprise.  But  fol- 


REGISTERS  AND  CUSTOMS  79 

lowing  the  dispatch  of  their  first  armada,  the  contractors  became 
bankrupt;  and  thereafter  it  was  not  found  possible  to  continue 
this  system.  1 

Veitia  Linaje  reproduces  in  detail  the  terms  of  the  asiento  of 
December,  1627.2  The  individuals  interested  undertook  to  dis- 
patch in  six  years  six  armadas  to  Tierra  Firme,  six  fiotas  to  New 
Spain,  and  two  armed  ships  to  Honduras;  and  they  deposited 
with  the  Crown  by  way  of  security  300,000  ducats  in  silver.  It 
was  agreed  that,  with  the  approval  of  the  officers  of  the  Casa,  they 
should  select  four  of  their  number  to  act  as  managers,  with  the 
title  of  Purveyors.  The  merchant  gild  was  to  have  a  fifth  vote  and 
precedency  in  all  their  deliberations. 

The  armadas  sent  with  the  fleet  to  Tierra  Firme  were  to  consist 
of  eight  galleons  of  at  least  600  tons  each,  and  three  dispatch 
boats,  one  of  100  tons  to  secure  the  pearls  at  Margarita,  and  two 
of  80  tons  to  follow  the  fleet.  They  were  to  carry  about  900  sol- 
diers and  1 100  seamen  and  gunners.^  The  fleet  of  New  Spain  was 
to  be  protected  by  a  "capi tana"  (flagship)  and  "almiranta"  (rear- 
admiraFs  ship),  each  of  600  tons,  with  two  dispatch  boats  of  80 
tons,  carrying  in  all  520  men.  The  capitana  and  almiranta  might 
each  take  on  board  200  tons  of  cargo.  If  no  fleet  sailed  to  New 
Spain,  three  of  the  Tierra  Firme  galleons  were  to  proceed  to  Vera 
Cruz  to  secure  the  royal  treasure.  The  two  ships  for  Honduras 
were  to  be  of  500  tons  burden  each  and  carry  a  crew  of  100  men. 
The  asentistas  were  also  obliged  to  dispatch  each  year  four  advice 
boats,  two  to  Vera  Cruz  and  two  to  Porto  Bello,  in  accordance 
with  the  directions  of  the  Casa.  The  arms  and  artiUery  for  all 
the  vessels  were  at  the  charge  of  the  government,  the  contrac- 
tors supplying  only  the  ships,  powder,  mimitions  and  stores. 
All  provisions  purchased  for  the  fleets  were  free  of  taxes,  as  if 
requisitioned  for  the  Crown. 

The  vessels  chosen  for  this  service  had  to  be  acceptable  to  the 
administrative  chamber  of  the  Casa,  and  the  galleons  ready  to 

^  Antuiiez  y  Acevedo,  p.  199. 

2  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  20,  par.  36  £f. 

3  When  this  asiento  was  renewed  in  1633,  the  number  of  galleons  for  the  Tierra 
Firme  fleet  was  raised  from  eight  to  fourteen,  and  the  rate  of  the  averia  from  6  to 
12  per  cent. 


8o  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

sail  on  the  20th  of  March  of  each  year.  On  the  return  voyage  all 
ships  had  to  come  to  San  Lucar  on  pain  of  6000  ducats  fine,  and 
any  vessel  returning  alone,  not  under  convoy  of  the  galleons, 
suffered  the  forfeiture  of  its  cargo. 

The  asentistas  were  empowered  to  maintain  in  American  ports 
factors  and  purveyors  who,  if  they  needed  funds,  might  requisi- 
tion from  the  treasure  registered  for  shipment,  to  the  extent  of 
60,000  ducats  in  Tierra  Firme  and  20,000  ducats  at  Vera  Cruz,  to 
be  repaid  from  the  averia  at  Seville.  If  the  fleets  were  detained 
over  the  winter  in  America,  the  expense  was  to  be  covered  by  an 
extra  assessment  on  the  merchantmen  awaiting  convoy.  In  such 
a  contingency,  as  new  galleons  would  have  to  be  sent  out  in  the 
following  spring,  the  king  promised  to  advance  200,000  ducats  to 
help  meet  the  extraordinary  expenditure.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
contractors  guaranteed  each  year  60,000  ducats  to  pay  certain 
fixed  charges  on  the  proceeds  of  the  convoy  tax.^ 

The  final  clause  (there  were  sixty- three  in  all)  is  interesting  as  a 
reminder  of  the  aristocratic  prejudices  of  those  days.  It  stipulated 
that  this  asiento  was  not  to  be  called  an  "  arrendamiento  ''  (i.  e., 
a  lease,  renting  or  "  farm  ^^),dJi  ignoble  term  implying  rather  the 
status  of  tradesman.  It  concerned  merely  the  administration  of 
a  branch  of  the  royal  service,  which  the  signatories  engaged  to 
manage  with  the  aid  of  their  private  fortunes,  and  as  such  it  must 
in  no  way  detract  from  their  claims  to  "  nobleza."  ^ 

As  already  related,  after  the  financial  crash  of  1641  the  farming 
of  the  averia  was  discontinued,  and  in  1643,  owing  to  the  exten- 
sive frauds  in  connection  with  registration,  it  was  proposed  that 
the  India  merchants,  instead  of  paying  an  ad  valorem  tax,  pledge 
a  fixed  sum  each  year  for  the  upkeep  of  the  armadas  and  flotas. 
Not  till  the  spring  of  1660,  however,  was  the  suggestion  acted 

1  This  was  called  the  "averia  vieja."  When  the  government  turned  over  to  private 
hands  the  administration  of  the  averia,  it  was  debtor  for  large  sums  of  money  owing 
on  account  of  provisions  and  other  supplies  furnished  the  fleets,  sums  which  it  was 
unable  to  pay.  These  debts  were  eventually  converted  (161 2)  into  5  per  cent 
annuities;  and  it  was  for  the  payment  of  these  annuities,  and  also  for  salaries  of  the 
president  and  other  ofl&cers  of  the  Casa  funded  in  the  averia  that  the  asentistas  had 
to  set  aside  60,000  ducats  before  incurring  any  other  liability. 

*  Antunez  y  Acevedo,  p.  198. 


REGISTERS  AND  CUSTOMS  8 1 

upon.  By  a  royal  decree  of  March  31,  it  was  provided  that  gold 
and  silver  might  be  shipped  from  America  without  registration 
or  even  a  declaration  at  the  Casa  de  Contratacion,  and  that 
all  products  of  the  Indies  were  exempt  from  averia,  customs  or 
any  other  impost  previously  levied  at  their  entry  into  Spain.  In 
return,  the  mercantile  houses  engaged  in  this  trade,  and  the  royal 
exchequer,  should  contribute  in  the  following  amounts: 

Merchants  of  the  provinces  of  Peru 350,000  ducats 

"  "    "  «         «  -^Qyf  Spain 200,000      " 

"    "  "  "New  Granada 50,000      « 

"  "    "  «  «  Cartagena 40,000      " 

The  royal  exchequer 150,000      " 

790,000      " 

The  new  law  involved  a  radical  alteration  in  an  ancient  and 
venerable  system,  and  was  promulgated,  moreover,  rather  hur- 
riedly, without  giving  time  for  the  Seville  merchants  to  be  heard. 
The  situation  was  fully  grasped  by  the  Crown,  and  provision 
made  in  the  decree  for  future  amendment.  It  seems  that  the 
quota  of  the  colonial  merchants  of  New  Spain,  New  Granada  and 
Cartagena  was  levied  indirectly,  by  an  additional  impost  on  goods 
sent  out  from  Spain.  To  this  the  exporters  in  Seville  objected. 
Consequently  in  June  of  1667,  after  a  report  from  a  joint  com- 
mittee of  merchants  and  officials,  the  scheme  was  somewhat 
changed.  Of  the  200,000  ducats  apportioned  to  New  Spain,  the 
merchants  of  that  region  were  to  pay  directly  about  90,000,  the 
remainder  to  be  levied  on  the  commodities  imported  at  Vera 
Cruz.  So,  too,  in  the  case  of  the  90,000  ducats  contributed  by 
New  Granada  and  Cartagena,  about  29,000  were  thereafter  paid 
directly,  the  rest  collected  in  the  form  of  a  tax  at  the  port  of  entry 
in  America.  The  revised  schedule,  therefore,  stood  as  follows: 

Merchants  of  the  provinces  of  Peru 350,000  ducats 

"         «  New  Spam 90,000      " 

"  "     "  «         «  ^g^  Granada  and  Cartagena 29,000      " 

**  "  Andalusia 171,000      " 

The  royal  exchequer 150,000      " 


790,000      "  * 


*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  20,  par.  47-51. 


82  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

Such  was  the  form  of  this  tax  when  the  laws  of  the  Indies  were 
published  in  codified  form  in  1681. 

The  above  figures  are  in  some  ways  rather  significant.  The 
Peruvian  merchants  paid  a  composition  of  350,000  ducats, 
while  those  of  New  Spain  paid  only  one  fourth  of  that 
amoimt,  or  90,000,  the  rest  being  secured  by  an  impost  on 
goods  registered  from  Seville.  One  would  gather,  therefore, 
that  Peru  still  produced  much  more  bullion  than  Mexico,  while 
Mexico,  with  its  agricultural  interests  and  larger  population, 
consumed  greater  quantities  of  European  manufactures,  which 
could  be  made  to  bear  an  increased  taxation.  It  is  also  note- 
worthy that  from  this  time  forward,  with  the  rule  regarding  the 
registration  of  bullion  abrogated,  it  was  the  more  necessary  to 
confine  trade  strictly  to  Seville  —  unless  the  governmei^t  was  sur- 
rendering altogether  its  ancient  pretense  of  forbidding  the 
export  of  precious  metals  to  foreign  countries. 

Armadas  fitted  out  at  the  expense  of  the  merchants  were  some- 
times used  for  purposes  other  than  the  escort  of  the  India  fleets. 
During  the  stress  of  a  foreign  war,  the  Grown  was  apt  to  requisi- 
tion a  squadron,  or  to  require  the  asentistas  to  contribute  to  enter- 
prises only  remotely  connected  with  the  defense  of  the  India 
navigation.  Vessels  intended  for  convoy  were  sent  to  cruise  for 
hostile  fleets,  and  funds  were  diverted  to  furnish  fortresses  in 
America  with  munitions  and  other  supplies.  In  the  decade  from 
1592  to  1602  the  extraordinary  charges  so  incurred  amounted  to 
more  than  a  million  ducats,  charges  which  legitimately  belonged 
to  the  royal  exchequer.^  It  was  the  decade  which  saw  Essex  and 
Howard  bum  the  shipping  in  the  Bay  of  Cadiz,  Hawkins  and 
Drake  make  their  last,  fatal,  privateering  voyage  to  the  West 
Indies,  and  Cumberland  plunder  the  island  of  Porto  Rico.  But, 
although  the  Seville  merchants  were  hard  hit,  bankers  and  others 
failing,  the  asentistas  apparently  weathered  the  crisis  without 
serious  embarrassment.  It  was  a  tribute  to  the  wealth  and 
resources  of  the  mercantile  princes  of  the  Andalusian  metropolis.^ 

*  Colecc.  de  Espaiia,  lii,  pp.  555-565. 

'  In  the  seventeenth  century,  we  hear  of  a  special  form  of  this  tax,  the  "averia 
gruesa."    It  was  a  second  assessment  on  the  same  goods,  and  according  to  Veitia 


REGISTERS  AND  CUSTOMS  83 

Customs  duties,  or  almojarifazgo,  were  not  exacted  from  the 
American  trade  at  Seville  till  toward  the  end  of  the  reign  of 
Charles  V.  Entire  exemption  had  been  conceded  by  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella  in  1497,  and  confirmed  at  frequent  intervals  not  only 
by  the  Catholic  kings  but  by  their  grandson.  In  the  case  of  com- 
modities introduced  into  Spain  from  the  Indies,  it  comprehended 
indefinitely  "  todas  las  cosas  '';  in  the  case  of  exports,  only  "  cosas 
para  proveimiento  y  sostentimiento."  But  in  the  beginning  the 
European  settlements  in  the  West  Indies  were  so  poor  and  limited 
in  extent  that  obviously  few  articles  of  luxury  would  be  sent  out 
by  way  of  trade.  The  exemption,  therefore,  was  practically 
complete  both  ways. 

This  situation  was  terminated  by  a  decree  of  February  28, 1543, 
as  regards  both  almojarifazgo  and  other  payments  to  the  Crown 
customary  in  Andalusian  ports.  Charles  V  ordered  that "  todas  y 
qualesquier  personas  que  traxesen  a  estos  reynos,  de  las  Indias, 
qualesquier  mercaderias  y  mantenimientos  y  otras  cosas,  6  las 
cargaren  en  estos  dichos  reynos  para  las  llevar  a  las  dichas  Indias, 
paguen  de  entrada  por  tierra,  y  cargo,  y  descargo,  y  venta  de  ellas 
los  derechos  de  almojarifazgo  y  alcabala,  y  otros  derechos  que  de 
ellas  nos  debieren,  conforme  a  las  leyes  y  condiciones  del  quademo 
del  almojarifazgo  del  arzobispadodeSevilla  yobispado  de  Cadiz.  "^ 
Only  the  personal  and  household  property  of  passengers  was 
excepted,  articles  declared  on  oath  to  be  not  intended  for  sale  or 
trade.  No  duty  was  paid,  of  course,  on  anything  connected  with 
the  royal  service;  and  this  came  to  include  provisions  and  other 

Linaje  might  be  levied  for  two  reasons:  (i)  if  some  addition  to  the  convoy  or  other 
expense  was  necessary  for  the  better  security  of  the  treasure;  (2)  when  part  of  the 
cargo  was  jettisoned  in  a  storm,  or  accidentally  damaged  through  no  fault  of  the 
ship  captain,  the  loss  being  distributed  among  all  the  shippers.  The  averia  gruesa 
was  analogous  to  the  custom  in  English  trade  called  the  "  general  average,"  and 
in  fact  may  be  traced  back  through  the  Digest  of  Justinian  to  the  law  of  ancient 
Rhodes.    See  Marsden,  Select  Pleas  in  the  Court  of  Admiralty,  ii. 

There  was  also  an  averia  levied  in  Peru,  for  the  maintenance  of  an  Armada  of 
the  South  Sea,  to  carry  the  bullion  from  Callao  to  Panama.  At  first  the  rate  was 
\  per  cent,  to  cover  the  expense  of  a  single  vessel.  But  after  Francis  Drake,  in 
his  cruise  around  the  world,  had  captured  this  treasure  ship  near  Panama,  the 
nimiber  of  vessels  was  increased  to  two,  and  the  rate  doubled.  Later  the  rate 
was  raised  again,  to  2  per  cent.    Antunez  y  Acevedo,  pp.  190-192. 

*  Antunez  y  Acevedo,  p.  211. 


84  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

supplies  purchased  for  the  convoys  of  the  India  flotas.  At  first 
affecting  only  ships  of  war,  the  privilege  was  in  1613  extended 
also  to  merchant  vessels.  In  1548  books  not  on  the  Index  were 
likewise  declared  free.^ 

The  duty  upon  exports  at  Seville  and  Cadiz  was  2  J  per  cent  ad 
valorem;  that  upon  imports  5  per  cent.  But  imported  goods  also 
paid  immediately  an  alcabala  of  10  per  cent  on  the  first  sale, 
whether  actually  sold  or  not.^  The  rule  of  1543,  therefore,  in- 
volved a  considerable  burden  upon  colonial  products  shipped  to 
Spain.  For  the  time  being  it  added  nothing  to  goods  exported  to 
the  Indies.  From  the  very  outset,  almojarifazgo  of  7I  per  cent 
had  been  collected  on  commodities  entering  American  ports,  a 
duty  which  represented  in  fact  the  usual  5  per  cent  plus  the  ex- 
port tax  of  2  J  per  cent  which  had  been  remitted  at  home.  As  this 
impost  contributed  to  the  support  of  the  government  in  the 
Indies,  it  was  an  arrangement  calculated  to  strengthen  the  re- 
sources of  the  new  and  struggling  colonies.  In  1543,  however, 
after  the  2I  per  cent  had  been  imposed  at  Seville,  it  was  specifi- 
cally stated  that  the  import  duty  in  America  should  thereafter 
be  only  5  per  cent.  Thus  the  whole  tax  upon  goods  sent  to  the 
colonies  remained  7  J  per  cent,  just  one  half  that  exacted  from 
trade  the  other  way. 

The  necessities  of  the  royal  exchequer  soon  gave  excuse  for 
reducing  this  inequahty.  A  cedula  of  May  29,  1566,  doubled 
the  almojarifazgo  on  the  outbound  traffic.  Thereafter  5  per 
cent  was  collected  at  Seville,  and  10  per  cent  in  the  Indies, 
the  total  customs  being  15  per  cent.^  In  the  same  year,  appar- 
ently, an  export  duty  of  2 J  per  cent  was  imposed  in  American 
ports,  raising  the  total  on  the  eastbound  trade  to  17 J.  And 
almojarifazgo  continued  to  be  collected  on  this  basis  until  the 
new  form  of  impost  was  established  in  1660.  As  this  affected 
only  duties  on  goods  entering  the  peninsula  from  the  colonies, 

^  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  22,  par.  21,  22;  Recop.,  lib.  viii,  tit.  15,  ley  27. 

2  Antunez  y  Acevedo,  p.  213. 

'  The  tariff  on  wines  was  put  even  higher,  10  per  cent  being  levied  at  each  end 
of  the  voyage.  In  the  following  year,  however,  the  export  duty  on  Sevillan  wines 
was  reduced  to  7^  per  cent,  making  17^  per  cent  in  all. 


REGISTERS  AND  CUSTOMS  8$ 

those  on  outbound  traffic  remained  unchanged  till  the  early  years 
of  the  eighteenth  century.^ 

The  duties  exacted  in  the  Indies  were  based,  not  upon  the 
schedule  of  values  employed  in  the  customhouse  in  Spain,  but 
upon  prices  in  the  American  market  at  the  time  of  payment. 
These  were  in  almost  every  case  very  much  higher,  sometimes  by 
several  hundred  per  cent.  On  the  other  hand,  the  merchant  was 
protected  in  case  of  deterioration  or  breakage  in  his  goods.  Mer- 
chandise shipped  from  Spain  to  Peru  paid  almojarifazgo  first  on 
the  appraised  value  at  Nombre  de  Dios,  and  on  arrival  at  Callao 
5  per  cent  of  the  increase  in  value  which  had  accrued  in  transit 
from  the  isthmus.  And  this  rule  held  good  for  all  the  Indies,  with 
respect  to  European  commodities  reshipped  from  one  colonial 
port  to  another,  even  though  they  lay  within  the  same  province, 
and  no  change  of  ownership  was  involved.  But  it  appKed  only  to 
bona  fide  reshipments;  in  other  cases  the  regular  lo  per  cent  of 
the  increase  in  value  was  exacted.  Customs  were  also  levied  upon 
intercolonial  maritime  trade  in  local  products,  at  the  ancient 
Sevillan  rate  of  5  per  cent  on  imports  and  2|  per  cent  on  exports. 
Onlywheat,  flour,  and  vegetables  between  ports  in  the  same  prov- 
ince were  exempt.  And  in  the  event  of  reshipment  to  a  third  port, 
full  duty  was  again  charged  at  both  ends,  imless  province  and 
ownership  remained  unchanged,  when  the  same  rule  was  enforced 
as  for  Spanish  goods.  After  1591  an  additional  duty  of  four  reals 
was  imposed  on  every  "  botija  '^  of  South  American  wine  trans- 
ported to  market  by  sea,  or  two  reals  if  carried  by  land.  There 
was  no  export  duty  in  America  on  European  articles  shipped  from 
one  port  to  another.^ 

1  In  1561  Philip  II  granted  a  reduction  of  one-half  on  products  of  the  island 
of  Hispaniola  for  a  period  of  twelve  years,  and  renewed  the  pri\dlege  in  1573.  The 
ostensible  plea  was  the  services  rendered  by  the  inhabitants,  and  the  fact  that  the 
city  of  San  Domingo  was  the  "  llave,  puerto  y  escala  de  todas  las  Indias."  But  the 
real  reason  was  without  doubt  the  poverty  stricken  condition  of  the  colony  in  con- 
trast with  the  more  flourishing  communities  on  the  mainland.  The  privilege  was 
later  extended  to  the  other  West  Indian  islands,  and  to  Venezuela,  Cumand,  and 
Rio  de  la  Hacha.  In  the  seventeenth  century  the  import  duty  on  commodities  from 
Hispaniola  was  further  reduced  to  two  per  cent. 

^  Recop.,  Ub.  viii,  tit.  15,  passim. 


86  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

It  was  a  favorite  device  of  exporters  to  transfer  registered  goods 
from  one  vessel  to  another  en  route,  and  on  reaching  the  Indies 
escape  payment  of  the  import  duties  by  declaring  that  the  mer- 
chandise had  never  been  shipped,  owing  to  the  hurry  in  dispatch- 
ing the  fleet.  Should  the  concealed  goods  be  discovered  on  the 
other  vessel,  the  merchant  resisted  forfeiture  on  the  plea  that  they 
had  been  properly  registered,  although  not  as  on  the  ship  where 
they  were  found.  It  was  this  subterfuge  which  prompted  the 
decrees  of  1540  and  later  years  ordering  officials  in  the  colonies  to 
collect  almojarifazgo  on  all  articles  noted  in  the  register,  whether 
they  were  in  the  ship  or  not,  unless  sufficient  evidence  was  pre- 
sented that  the  goods  had  been  lost  at  sea,  or  certification  was 
brought  from  the  Casa,  or  its  representatives  at  Cadiz  or  San 
Lucar,  that  they  had  not  been  embarked.  Another  scheme  was 
to  secure  the  receipt  for  the  duties  at  Seville,  but  neglect  to  have 
the  goods  included  in  the  ship's  register,  hoping  thereby  to  evade 
the  colonial  customs;  and  if  the  articles  were  found  and  denounced, 
to  present  the  Spanish  receipt  as  proof  that  no  fraud  was  intended. 
This  artifice  was  countered  by  a  royal  order  of  June,  1582,  requir- 
ing the  "  almojarifes,"  or  customs  collectors  of  Andalusia,  to  send 
with  each  ship  or  fleet  a  separate  statement  of  all  the  merchandise 
on  which  duty  had  been  paid.^ 

At  the  opening  of  the  reign  of  Philip  II,  the  revenues  from  the 
almojarifazgo  at  Seville  amounted  to  65,000  or  70,000  ducats  a 
year.  A  century  later  they  were  probably  little  more  than  700,000 
ducats.  And  most  of  that  income  was  consumed  in  expenses  of 
administration. 

In  the  seventeenth  century,  American  commerce  was  sub- 
jected to  several  minor  imposts  which  had  no  counterpart  in 
earlier  times.  In  1608  a  tonnage  duty  (derecho  de  toneladas)  of 
one  and  one-half  reals  of  silver  on  every  ton  burden  was  levied  on 
all  vessels  sailing  to  the  colonies  from  Seville,  Cadiz,  or  the  Canary 
Islands.  Its  proceeds  went  to  the  support  of  the  university  or  gild 
of  mariners  sailing  in  the  India  navigation.  This  gild  had  been 
formed  early  in  the  reign  of  Philip  II  by  shipowners,  masters  and 
pilots,  and  had  its  headquarters  in  the  suburb  of  Triana,  across 
*  Antunez  y  Acevedo,  p.  216;  Recop.,  lib.  viii,  tit.  15,  leyes  4,  8. 


REGISTERS  AND  CUSTOMS  87 

the  river  from  Seville.  One  of  the  original  statutes  of  this  fra- 
ternity provided  that  on  trans-Atlantic  vessels  a  sum  equal  to  the 
fourth  part  of  a  seaman's  wages  should  be  reserved  to  the  use  of 
the  gild,  and  it  was  this  ancient  custom  which  Philip  III  converted 
into  a  tonnage  tax.  The  impost  continued  to  be  collected  prob- 
ably to  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century.  ^ 

In  1642,  perhaps  as  a  measure  of  imitation,  a  second  tonnage 
duty  was  levied,  in  favor  of  the  Crown.  In  that  year  the  privilege 
was  conceded  to  any  Spanish  vessel  to  depart  for  ports  in  America 
other  than  the  regular  emporia  of  Cartagena,  Porto  Bello,  and 
Vera  Cruz,  without  special  license  as  theretofore  from  the  Council 
of  the  Indies,  provided  several  sailed  together  or  in  convoy  of  the 
treasure  fleets,  and  a  tonnage  tax  was  paid  to  the  government. 
This  new  contribution  was  fixed  at  2  ducats  silver  per  ton  for  ves- 
sels going  to  Havana,  Campeche,  Honduras,  Gibraltar  (on  Lake 
Maracaibo),  and  La  Guayra;  a  ducat  and  a  half  for  those  bound 
to  Margarita,  Cumana,  Nueva  Cordoba,  Rio  de  la  Hacha  and 
Santa  Marta;  and  a  ducat  for  those  sailing  to  Hispaniola  and 
Porto  Rico.  Ships  desiring  registers  for  some  of  the  poorer,  more 
backward,  settlements  (Trinidad,  Orinoco,  etc.)  were  allowed 
to  go  free.2  Vessels  subject  to  this  new  regulation,  i.  e.,  those 
trading  outside  the  customary,  stereotyped  track  of  the  great 
fleets,  were  called  "  navios  de  registro  suelto,"  or  simply  "  regis- 
tros  sueltos." 

To  this  tonnage  duty  was  added  a  surtax  of  2  J  per  cent  of  the 
full  amount  of  the  impost,  charged  to  the  revenue  known  as  the 
"  media  anata. "  The  media  anata,  or  semi-anna te,  established  in 
1632,  was  theoretically  the  half  of  the  first  year's  income  from  any 
office,  civil  or  military,  secured  from  the  Crown,  or  a  payment  in 
acknowledgment  of  some  special  privilege  or  dispensation.    As 

^  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  7,  par.  13. 

2  Ibid.,  par.  35.  Forty  years  later,  in  1681,  although  Spanish  vessels  were 
rapidly  disappearing  from  the  seas,  the  rate  vastly  increased.  The  schedule  was 
then  fixed  as  follows:  for  Buenos  Aires,  20  ducats;  for  Caracas  (La  Guayra),  12 
ducats;  for  Campeche,  11  ducats;  for  Havana  or  Honduras,  10  ducats;  for  Tab- 
asco, 8  ducats;  for  Cumand,  Maracaibo,  or  Cuba,  7  ducats;  for  Santa  Marta  or 
Trinidad,  6  ducats;  for  San  Domingo  or  Porto  Rico,  3  ducats.  It  is  possible  that 
the  admission  of  foreign  bottoms  under  Spanish  title  was  responsible  for  this 
increase. 


88  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

applied  to  the  privilege  of  carrying  cargoes  to  these  particular 
colonial  ports,  it  took  the  form  noted  above. 

Another  addition  to  the  tonnage  duty  was  the  "  derecho  de  ex- 
trangeria,"  first  exacted  in  1681.  It  was  a  charge  of  three  ducats 
for  every  ton  burden  of  any  foreign  ship  admitted  to  the  India 
navigation,  since  by  law  all  but  Spanish-built  ships  had  always 
been  excluded.  On  this  also  was  paid  the  media  anata  of  2I  per 
cent. 

In  the  same  year,  the  mariners'  gild,  in  return  for  various  con- 
cessions, agreed  to  still  another  contribution,  of  ninety-six  reals 
velUn  (about  four  and  one-third  ducats)  on  every  ton  freighted 
in  the  merchant  ships  included  in  the  flotas,  and  thirty-two  reals 
in  the  case  of  the  "  registros  sueltos."  This  last  tax  was  intended 
for  the  fovmdation  and  maintenance  of  a  school  of  navigation 
in  Seville,  known  as  the  Seminario  de  San  Telmo,  an  institution 
which  persisted  down  to  the  nineteenth  century. 

All  of  these  imposts  together  comprised  the  "  derechos  de 
toneladas,"  as  they  were  known  at  the  close  of  the  Hapsburg  era. 

The  almojarifazgo  and  tonnage  duties  were  gathered  at  Seville 
and  Cadiz  by  the  ordinary  custom  officers  of  the  port,  represent- 
ing either  the  Crown  or  the  farmers  of  the  tax.  In  the  Indies, 
where  only  almojarifazgo  was  collected,  its  supervision  was  one  of 
the  particular  duties  of  the  officers  of  the  royal  exchequer.  As 
already  related,  there  were  three  in  each  of  the  principal  cities,  a 
treasurer,  contador,  and  factor,  corresponding  in  their  origin  and 
some  of  their  functions  to  the  three  original  officials  of  the  Casa 
de  Contratacion,  and  known  specifically  as  the  Royal  Officials, 
the  "  oficiales  reales."  * 

Their  most  onerous  task  in  this  connection  was  that  of  ap- 
praisal; and  numerous  decrees  and  instructions  survive  prescrib- 
ing the  manner  of  performing  this  always  thankless  busiuess.  The 
valuations  had  to  be  made  by  all  three  officials  together,  and  em- 
bodied in  a  formal  instrument  indicating  the  day,  month  and 
year,  and  the  nature  and  ownership  of  the  goods.  All  diligence 
must  be  used  in  seeking  information  on  which  to  base  a  judgment, 
from  the  ship's  register,  and  from  trustworthy  witnesses  as  to  the 
*  See  Chapter  II,  pp.  26  f. 


REGISTERS  AND  CUSTOMS  89 

conditions  current  in  the  local  market.  And  the  order  is  fre- 
quently repeated  that  the  appraisal  be  just  and  moderate,  so  as  to 
prejudice  neither  the  royal  revenues  nor  the  interests  of  the  mer- 
chants.^ Later  instructions,  issued  to  the  oficiales  reales  in  1554, 
after  the  system  of  annual  fleets  was  under  way,  provided  that 
when  such  a  fleet  arrived  at  its  American  destination,  the  presi- 
dent and  judges  of  the  local  audiencia  should  assist  the  treasury 
ofl&cers  in  this  matter.  But  it  happened  that  in  some  regions  the 
principal  seaport  was  situated  a  considerable  distance  from  the 
residence  of  the  audiencia.  Such  was  the  case  of  Vera  Cruz, 
the  objective  of  the  rich  Mexican  flotas.  The  oficiales  reales  of 
Vera  Cruz,  therefore,  were  ordered  to  make  the  appraisals  alone, 
and  send  them  before  publication  to  the  viceroy  in  Mexico  City. 
The  latter  then  called  a  financial  session  (acuerdo  de  hacienda) 
of  the  members  of  the  audiencia,  the  attorney-general  and  the 
treasury  officials  of  the  capital,  to  approve  or  revise  the  schedules 
submitted,  before  returning  them  to  the  coast.  And  when  the 
schedules  were  put  into  effect,  no  appeal  was  permitted  from  the 
merchants,  because  of  the  delays  attending  any  further  negotia- 
tions with  the  viceregal  government.  Considering  the  distance 
between  Vera  Cruz  and  Mexico  City,  and  the  methods  of  com- 
munication in  those  days,  the  procedure  seems  a  peculiarly 
clumsy  and  dilatory  one.^ 

A  later  decree,  of  December,  1579,  ordered  goods  to  be  valued 
at  the  average  wholesale  price  current  within  the  first  thirty  days 
after  the  arrival  of  the  fleet.  But  by  the  opening  of  the  following 
century  it  had  apparently  become  the  general  practice  to  add  to 
the  valuation  stated  in  the  ship's  register  at  a  imiform  rate  of  45 
or  50  per  cent,  according  to  the  state  of  the  market.'  In  any  case, 
the  appraisal  was  made  without  unpacking  or  opening  the  goods 
for  detailed  examination,  the  officials  trusting  to  a  formal  oath  by 

*  Encinas,  iii,  pp.  472-475. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  470  (decree  of  Jan.  17,  1593).  If  a  single  vessel  entered  an  American 
port,  however,  the  oficiales  reales  might  take  turns  in  officiating  at  the  appraisal 
and  discharge  of  the  cargo. 

Goods  passing  over  the  isthmus  were  appraised  by  the  oficiales  reales  assisted 
by  a  judge  of  the  audiencia  of  Panama  delegated  for  that  purpose  by  its  president. 

^  Recop.,  lib.  viii,  tit.  i6j  leyes  8,  15. 


90  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

the  merchant  that  they  were  as  represented  in  the  register.  This 
seems  to  have  been  the  rule  at  Seville  since  1543,  when  the  almo- 
jarifazgo  de  Indias  was  first  collected  there.  The  ofiicers  at  the 
aduana  never  examined  the  boxes  and  bales  shipped,  or  de- 
manded invoices  of  the  shippers,  unless  there  was  direct  evidence 
of  fraud  and  an  order  from  a  competent  judicial  court.  Only  a 
general  statement  was  required  under  oath  of  the  nature  and 
quality  of  the  goods.  In  1586,  as  several  times  in  the  following 
century,  the  administrators  of  the  customs  endeavored  to  change 
this  practice.  But  each  time  they  met  with  determined  opposition 
from  the  Casa  de  Contratacion  and  the  merchants;  an  opposition, 
curiously  enough,  which  received  the  approval  and  support  of  the 
Crown.  If  we  may  judge  from  a  letter  of  Philip  II  to  the  Casa  in 
August,  1586,  the  Crown  put  promptness  and  dispatch  in  the  sail- 
ing of  the  fleets  before  the  increase  of  revenue  which  might  result 
from  a  stricter  collection  of  the  almojarifazgo.  The  possible  dis- 
honesty of  a  few  merchants  was  held  to  be  of  far  less  consideration 
than  the  delay  and  prejudice  to  American  trade  in  general,  if  cus- 
toms officers  were  permitted  to  inspect  goods  or  require  a  detailed 
statement  of  their  character. ^  This  view  of  the  situation  is  espe- 
cially interesting  when  we  remember  the  financial  straits  of 
Philip's  government  at  the  time,  two  years  before  the  sailing  of 
the  great  Armada.  And  from  what  we  know  of  the  Seville  trade 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  frauds  against  the  customs  must  have 
been  very  extensive. 

Why  Spanish  merchants  should  not  have  been  able  to  meet  all 
the  formalities  encountered  in  a  modem  customhouse,  and  still 
ship  their  goods  with  sufficient  alacrity  to  insure  the  punctual  sail- 
ing of  the  fleets,  is  hard  to  say.  The  situation  is  stranger  if  we 
consider  that  there  were  only  two  fleets  at  most  each  year,  that 
they  departed  at  fairly  uniform  times  in  the  year,  and  that  their 
going  was  heralded  and  prepared  for  six  months  in  advance.  Yet 
it  is  clear  that  there  were  endless  and  seemingly  inexcusable 
delays;  and  the  Crown  was  justified  in  its  anxiety  that  embarka- 
tion and  departure  be  prompt.  Perhaps  the  entire  difficulty  may 
be  ascribed  to  an  incurable  procrastination  and  want  of  what  an 
^  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  18,  par.  4-7. 


REGISTERS  AND  CUSTOMS  9 1 

Anglo-Saxon  would  call  business  efficiency,  limitations  which 
would  be  as  formidable  in  the  countinghouse  of  the  merchant  as 
in  the  customhouse  of  the  king. 

There  is  also  a  suspicion  that  there  may  have  been  another 
reason,  unexpressed,  for  the  opposition  to  a  more  exact  appraisal 
of  goods  passing  through  the  customs;  another  reason  for  the 
Crown's  willingness  to  trust  to  the  good  faith  of  the  shipper.  It 
was  inconvenient  to  the  Seville  monopolists  that  exact  knowledge 
of  the  cargoes  sent  to  the  great  fairs  at  Porto  Bello  and  Vera 
Cruz  should  become  public.  For,  as  the  colonies  were  chronically 
undersupplied,  the  general  level  of  prices  at  these  fairs  was  gov- 
erned by  the  comparatively  simple  procedure  of  balancing  the 
whole  value  of  the  goods  brought  out  with  the  whole  amount  of 
raw  materials  and  bullion  offered  by  the  Creole  merchants  for 
exchange.  And  the  Castilian  exporters,  by  manipulating  each 
year  the  nature  and  quantity  of  the  merchandise  to  be  shipped  to 
the  Indies,  raised  prices  at  will  and  reaped  enormous  profits,  said 
to  have  amounted  sometimes  to  300  or  400  per  cent.  It  was  a  mat- 
ter of  some  concern,  therefore,  that  the  character  of  the  shipments 
should  not  be  known  till  the  fleets  reached  their  destination.  And 
as  the  king  was  usually  imder  obligation  to  the  wealthy  monop- 
olists for  gifts  and  loans  to  the  exchequer,  he  was  the  more  apt  to 
connive  at  practices  of  this  sort. 

Repeated  conflicts  with  the  administrators  or  farmers  of  the 
almojarifazgo  resulted  in  a  radical  change  in  the  methods  of  ap- 
praisal in  1624.  After  that  date  no  statement  at  all  was  required 
of  the  shipper.  Instead,  articles  for  export  were  divided  into  a  few 
comprehensive  classes,  and  a  uniform  valuation  for  each  class 
imposed  on  boxes  and  bales  according  to  weight,  and  on  rougher 
cases  according  to  bulk.  Veitia  Linaje  says  ^  that  the  usual  cus- 
tom thereafter  was  to  value  each  quarter  (arroba  =  twenty-eight 
pounds)  embarked  for  Porto  Bello  at  5100  maravedis,  and  each 
quarter  for  Mexico  at  3600  maravedis,  and  on  that  basis  to  assess 
the  almojarifazgo  and  other  duties.  The  new  method  seems  to 
have  been  more  remimerative  than  the  old,  and  was  continued 
almost  to  the  close  of  the  century.   The  schedule  for  exports  at 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  18,  par.  6. 


92  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

Seville  was  never  changed.  In  the  case  of  raw  materials  imported 
from  the  colonies,  alterations  were  made  in  years  when  certain 
articles  suffered  violent  fluctuations  in  price,  but  only  with  the 
consent  of  the  president  of  the  Casa.* 

At  the  very  end  of  the  century,  in  1695,  another  innovation 
appeared,  all  commodities  being  assessed  according  to  cubic 
measurement.  This  lasted  for  three  years,  till  1698,  after  which 
the  appraisal  was  based  on  the  number  of  pieces,  regardless  of 
measurement  or  value.  Finally,  in  1707,  the  method  of  cubic 
measurement  was  reestablished,  and  remained  in  force  till  1778.2 

The  Crown  was  always  very  solicitous  that  a  strict  and  regular 
accoimting  be  kept  of  those  who  represented  its  financial  interests 
in  the  New  World.  In  15 10  Ferdinand  Columbus  and  other 
officials  in  Hispaniola  were  instructed  to  transmit  thereafter  de- 
tailed reports  of  receipts  and  expenditures  to  the  Casa  de  Con- 
tra tacion;  and  the  Casa  was  directed  to  keep  a  copy  of  such 
reports  in  a  separate  book,  as  well  as  similar  records  for  any  other 
islands  or  provinces  which  might  be  colonized  in  the  future. 
Spaniards  appointed  to  treasury  posts  in  the  Indies  took  oath  of 
office  prior  to  sailing  before  the  officials  of  the  Casa,  and  at  the 
same  time  gave  bond  or  surety  for  the  proper  performance  of 
their  duties.^  But  after  1608,  oficiales  reales  might  reserve  half 
the  security  imtil  arrival  at  their  destination;  and  by  Veitia 
Liuaje's  time  it  had  become  customary  for  the  whole  bond 
to  be  presented  before  the  governor  or  other  authorities  in  the 
colonies. 

Among  the  so-called  "  New  Laws  "  promulgated  by  Charles  V 
in  1542-43  was  one  providing  more  specifically  for  the  care  and 
transmission  of  colonial  exchequer  records: 

.  .  .  porque  nos  tengamos  entera  noticia  de  nuestra  hazienda,  mandamos 
que  los  nuestros  oficiales  de  todas  las  nuestras  Indias,  Islas  y  tierra  firme  del 
mar  Oceano,  nos  embien  en  fin  de  cada  un  aiio  un  tiento  de  cuenta  de  su 
cargo,  de  todo  lo  que  ovieren  recibido  y  cobrado  aquel  aiio;  ansi  de  nuestros 
quintos  y  rentas  de  almojarifadgo  como  de  los  tributos  que  recibieren  de  los 
Indies  que  estuvieren  en  nuestra  cabe^a,  y  de  las  penas  de  camara,  y  otras 

1  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  18,  par.  6.  '  Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1552,  no.  23. 

2  Antufiez  y  Acevedo,  p.  247. 


REGISTERS  AND  CUSTOMS  93 

qualesquier  rentas  y  derechos  nuestros,  poniendo  muy  clara,  y  especifica- 
mente,  lo  que  de  cada  cosa  ay,  y  que  da  en  nuestra  area  de  las  tres  Haves;  y 
que  tengan  especial  cuydado  que  todo  lo  que  ansi  recibieren  y  cobraren  lo 
pongan  y  tengan  en  la  dicha  area  de  las  tres  11a ves;  .  .  .  y  que  de  tres  en 
tres  anos  embien  a  la  casa  de  la  contratacion  &  Sevilla  la  cuenta  por  entero  y 
particular  de  todo  lo  que  fuere  a  su  cargo  de  aquellos  tres  anos,  poniendo  en 
ellos  el  cargo  y  data  y  resolucion  della;  porque  de  lo  contrario  nos  ternemos 
(sic)  por  deservidos;  y  lo  mandaremos  castigar  con  todo  rigor;  y  encargamos 
y  mandamos  k  los  nuestros  Presidentes  y  oydores  de  las  dichas  nuestras 
audiencias  que  tengan  muy  particular  cuydado  de  que  los  dichos  nuestros 
oficiales  que  residieren  en  las  Islas  y  provincias  de  sus  districtos  hagan  y 
cumplan  todo  lo  de  suso  contenido,  y  de  nos  avisar  de  los  que  no  lo  hizieren.^ 

The  rule  was  repeated  in  a  cedula  of  October,  1548,  and  in 
the  code  of  instructions  issued  for  the  colonial  treasuries  on  May 
10,  1554.^  The  accounts  were  received  by  one  or  two  spe- 
cially deputed  judges  of  the  audiencia,  within  two  months  after 
the  New  Year,  and  remitted  by  the  audiencia  to  Seville.  And  al- 
though copies  were  filed  by  the  Casa,  their  destination  was  the 
Council  of  the  Indies,  where  they  were  audited  and  given  their 
final  quittance. 

In  spite  of  the  reiteration  of  orders  and  instructions,  the  trans- 
mission of  colonial  ledgers  was  often  very  irregular.  The  newly- 
appointed  viceroy  of  Peru,  Francisco  de  Toledo,  on  his  arrival  at 
Panama  in  June,  1569,  found  that  the  accounts  of  the  oficiales 
reales  there  had  not  been  properly  audited  since  1552;  and  he 
directed  the  books  to  be  brought  down  to  date  and  closed,  imder 
supervision  of  the  audiencia,  so  that  they  might  be  sent  to  Spain. 
The  sums  involved  were  a  matter  of  about  7,000,000  pesos.*  In 
1 591,  again,  orders  were  sent  to  the  audiencia  of  La  Plata  (Upper 
Peru)  to  remit  immediately  to  the  king  the  exchequer  accoimts  for 
the  years  1573,  1576,  1577,  and  1578;  and  in  1596  a  royal  letter 
enjoined  greater  strictness  in  this  matter,  on  threat  of  heavy 
penalties  ."^ 

There  were  often  disputes  and  misunderstandings,  moreover, 
between  the  treasury  officials  and  the  viceroys  or  governors. 
These  may  have  been  due  in  part  to  mutual  jealousies,  arising  out 

*  Leyes  y  ordenanzas  .  .  .  para  la  gobemacion  de  las  Indias.    Madrid,  1585. 

'  Colecc.  de  doc.j  ist  ser.,  xii,  p.  143.  »  Colecc.  de  Espaiia,  xciv,  pp.  232  f. 

*  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xviii,  pp.  440,  449. 


94  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

of  the  circumstance  that  exchequer  officers  held  their  posts 
directly  of  the  Crown,  and  were  therefore  outside  the  charmed 
circle  of  viceregal  influence.  But  they  also  resulted  from  nepotism 
and  corrupt  practices  in  high  places.  From  the  second  half  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  most  offices  in  the  Spanish  Indies  were  pur- 
chased. The  viceroys  of  New  Spain  and  Peru,  who  usually  were 
grandees,  obtained  their  appointments  through  favor  at  court. 
But  the  governors  of  the  ports,  and  the  presidents  of  the  au- 
diencias,  bought  their  posts  in  Castile;  while  minor  offices  in  the 
colonies  were  in  the  gift  of  the  viceroy  or  sold  to  the  highest  bid- 
der. The  consequences  were  not  far. to  seek.  Each  official  ex- 
pected to  recover  his  initial  outlay,  and  amass  a  competence  as 
well.  The  viceroys  themselves,  great  nobles  as  they  were,  too 
often  accepted  the  distinction  for  the  opportunity  it  seemed  to 
offer  of  repleting  a  diminished  family  fortune.  And,  with  an  ex- 
pensive establishment  to  maintain,  and  a  host  of  clamoring  de- 
pendents to  satisfy,  they  had  every  temptation  to  use  their 
authority  and  influence  in  ways  which  prejudiced  the  king's 
revenues.  If  the  viceroy  and  treasury  officials  were  on  friendly 
terms,  irregularities  were  connived  at,  and  no  complaints  reached 
Madrid.  They  might  even  discover  some  interests  in  common. 
But  if  there  was  friction  or  jealousy,  accusations  from  both  quar- 
ters were  sure  to  flow  to  Spain.  Viceroys,  it  was  said,  gave  offices, 
pensions,  and  "  repartimientos  "  of  Indians  to  their  relatives  and 
servants,  and  to  others  whose  services  to  the  Crown  did  not  war- 
rant such  favors.  They  drew  money  from  the  treasury  for  pur- 
poses not  provided  for  in  the  royal  instructions,  and  against  the 
protests  of  the  exchequer  officials.  Governors  of  the  ports  winked 
at  the  shipment  of  unregistered  merchandise  by  their  friends,  and 
if  the  culprits  were  caught,  or  made  defendants  in  fiscal  suits,  they 
compounded  with  them  for  less  than  they  owed  the  king.^  Vice- 
roys, on  the  other  hand,  complained  of  the  restrictions  and  imped- 
iments offered  by  the  oficiales  reales  to  the  proper  exercise  of 
their  functions,  and  begged  for  greater  freedom  in  the  control  of 
government  expenditure.  They  were  helpless,  they  said,  if  treas- 
urers would  pay  out  nothing  except  fixed  charges  on  any  but  royal 
*  Colecc.  de  Espaiiaj  xiii,  p.  549;  lii,  p.  484;  cxiv,  pp.  132, 153. 


REGISTERS  AND  CUSTOMS  95 

warrant.  They  urged  that  the  oficiales  throughout  their  prov- 
inces be  made  to  observe  viceregal  provisions  for  the  good 
administration  of  the  exchequer,  and  sought  power  to  hold  them 
responsible  for  arrears,  in  spite  of  any  cedulas  they  might  possess 
excusing  discrepancies  in  their  ledgers.  Such  recriminations  were 
inevitable  when  the  centre  of  authority  was  four  thousand  miles 
away,  and  when  the  policy  of  the  government,  consistently  that 
of  "  divide  et  impera,"  allowed  little  or  no  initiative  to  its  colonial 
servants. 

It  was  probably  the  very  distance  from  Spain,  the  dilSiculty  of 
securing  a  regular  remission  6f  accounts  to  the  India  Council,  and 
the  consequent  delays  in  bringing  guilty  officials  to  justice,  that 
prompted  the  innovations  of  1605.  In  that  year,  three  Tribunals 
of  Accounts  were  set  up  in  the  Indies,  in  Mexico  City,  in  Lima, 
and  in  Santa  Fe  de  Bogota.  Acting  in  the  name  of  the  king  of 
Spain,  and  fortified  by  the  possession  of  the  royal  seal,  they 
audited  all  public  accounts  in  the  Indies,  and  from  their  decisions 
there  was  no  appeal.^  They  were  the  counterpart,  in  many  ways, 
of  the  Tribunal  de  la  Contaduria  of  the  Casa  de  Contratacion. 

When  royal  moneys  from  the  Indies  arrived  in  Seville,  they 
were  deposited  with  the  jueces  oficiales  of  the  Casa,  and  a  courier 
sent  posthaste  to  the  king  with  word  of  the  amounts  of  gold, 
silver  and  precious  stones  received,  and  the  probable  value  of  the 
bullion  after  coinage.  The  latter  was  immediately  sold  or  turned 
over  to  the  mint  in  Seville,  so  as  to  avoid  any  delay  in  meeting 
drafts  upon  it.  No  money  might  be  paid  out  by  the  treasurer 
without  an  order  from  the  Councils  of  the  Indies  and  the  Ha- 
cienda, except  for  the  salaries  of  the  Casa's  officers.  The  rule  was 
that  the  Council  of  the  Indies,  after  conference  with  the  Council 
of  the  Hacienda,  released  certain  sums  of  money  as  subject  to 
draft,  whereupon  the  latter  Council  issued  warrants  to  the  credi- 
tors of  the  Crown.  These  warrants  were  carried  to  the  adminis- 
trative chamber  of  the  Casa  in  Seville,  where  the  jueces  oficiales 
signed  an  order  upon  the  treasurer  for  payment.^ 

*  Recop.,  lib.  viii,  tit.  i. 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  2,  par.  15, 16;  cap.  11,  par.  18, 19;  Ord.  of  the  Casa, 
1552,  no.  44. 


CHAPTER  V 

EMIGRATION  AND  THE  FOREIGN  INTERLOPER 

Before  the  nineteenth  century,  it  was  accepted  as  more  or  less 
axiomatic  by  European  states  that  colonial  commerce  should  be  the 
exclusive  privilege  of  merchants  of  the  home  country.  As  the  new 
community  owed  its  existence  to  the  mother  country,  receiving 
from  it  constant  succor  in  the  way  of  immigrants  and  capital,  it 
was  regarded  as  only  natural  and  just  that  the  metropolis  have  the 
enjo3mient  of  its  surplus  products,  and  of  all  its  external  trade. 
The  maritime  nations,  it  is  true,  were  always  ready  to  encroach 
upon  the  colonial  domains  of  other  peoples,  but  they  were  equally 
determined  to  maintain  their  own  preserves  inviolate.  This  prin- 
ciple of  colonial  exclusivism  was  the  dominating  idea  in  the  rigid 
and  complicated  commercial  system  evolved  by  Hapsburg  Spain. 
From  the  discovery  of  America  trade  with  the  New  World,  and 
even  the  right  to  reside  there,  was  reserved,  except  for  a  very 
short  interval,  to  subjects  of  the  Spanish  Crown.  In  theory,  no 
foreigners  were  tolerated. 

The  historian  and  chronicler,  Oviedo,  tells  us  that  till  the  death 
of  Isabella  emigration  to  the  Indies  was  closely  restricted  to  in- 
habitants of  Castile  and  Leon,  except  by  special  grace  to  a  servant 
or  favorite  of  the  sovereign.  But  after  her  death,  Ferdinand 
allowed  Aragonese  and  other  Spaniards  to  cross  the  seas  in  either 
private  or  public  capacity.  And  finally  Charles  V  accorded  simi- 
lar privileges  to  his  non-Spanish  subjects,  so  that  in  Oviedo's 
time  men  from  all  kingdoms  and  lordships  imder  the  imperial 
monarch  passed  freely  to  the  New  World. ^ 

This  seems  to  be  an  accurate  resume  of  the  situation  in  the  first 
half  of  the  sixteenth  century.  True,  Veitia  Linaje  asserts,  and 
Antunez  y  Acevedo  repeats  after  him,  that  from  the  beginning  the 
Aragonese  enjoyed  equal  rights  with  the  natives  of  Castile,^  but 

*  Historia  general  de  las  Indias,  lib.  iii,  cap.  7. 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  31,  par.  3;  Antunez  y  Acevedo,  pp.  268-269. 

06 


EMIGRATION  AND  THE  FOREIGN  INTERLOPER         97 

the  evidence  they  adduce  is  faulty.  It  is  probable  that  before 
Isabella's  death  Aragonese  were  not  permitted  to  participate 
without  special  license  in  trade  with  the  West.  A  royal  letter  of 
November  17,  1504,  concedes  to  Juan  Sanchez  de  la  Tesoreria, 
resident  in  Seville  but  native  of  Saragossa,  in  return  for  certain 
services  to  the  crown,  permission  to  carry  to  Hispaniola  "las 
mercaderias  e  otras  cosas  que  puedan  llevar  los  vecinos  e  mora- 
dores  naturales  de  estos  nuestros  reinos  ...  no  embargante  que 
no  seais  natural  dellos."  ^  In  this  instance,  "  estos  nuestros 
reinos  "  can  have  no  application  except  to  Castile  and  Leon.  Nine 
years  earlier,  in  1495,  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  had  granted  the 
right  to  emigrate  and  trade  to  natives  "  de  nuestros  reinos  e 
senorios  ";  and  the  instructions  to  Gk)vemor  Ovando  in  Septem- 
ber, 1 501,  had  provided  that  no  one  not "  natural  destos  reinos  " 
be  allowed  to  live  in  the  Indies.^  But  in  view  of  Oviedo's  testi- 
mony and  of  Ferdinand^s  letter  to  Juan  Sanchez,  it  is  reasonable 
to  conclude  that "  estos  reinos,"  in  1495  and  1501  as  in  1504,  refer 
only  to  Castile  and  Leon,  not  to  Aragon.  There  are  also  the  peti- 
tions which  two  proctors  from  Hispaniola  presented  to  Ferdinand 
in  1508.  Among  other  things,  the  colonists  requested  that  trade 
with  the  island  be  thrown  open  to  all  Spaniards,  whether  Castil- 
ians  or  Aragonese,  and  to  all  seaports  in  the  peninsula.^  Finally, 
there  is  the  testimony  of  the  queen  herself.  In  her  last  testament 
she  speaks  only  once  of  the  Indies,  and  then  as  follows: 

Por  quanto  las  Islas  e  Tierra  ferme  del  Mar  Oceano,  e  Islas  de  Canaria, 
fueron  descubiertas,  e  conquistadas  k  costo  de  estos  mis  Reynos,  6  con  los 
naturales  dellos,  y  por  esto  es  razon  que  el  trato  e  provecho  dellas  se  aya,  e 
trate,  €  negocie  destos  mis  Reynos  de  Castilla  y  de  Leon,  y  en  ellos,  y  a 
ellos  venga  todo  lo  que  dellas  se  traxere:  por  ende  ordeno,  e  mando  que  assi 
se  cumple  assi  en  las  que  fasta  aqui  sea  descubiertas,  como  en  las  que  se 
descubriran  de  aqui  adelante  en  otra  parte  alguna. 

The  undertaking  of  the  Indies,  therefore,  belonged  exclusively  to 
the  kingdom  of  Castile.  Isabella's  own  subjects  alone  were  per- 
mitted to  trade  in  the  newly-discovered  lands,  as  it  was  by  them 

^  Viajes,  iii,  p.  525. 

^  Ibid.y  ii,  p.  165;    Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xxx,  p.  13.    The  prohibition  was 
repeated  in  the  ordinances  of  the  Casa  of  1505  (no.  5),  and  of  1510  (no.  20). 
'  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  v,  p.  125. 


98  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

and  at  the  cost  of  the  Castilian  Crown  that  these  regions  had  been 
found  and  subdued. 

It  is  natural,  however,  that  when  Ferdinand  alone  ruled  Castile, 
in  the  name  of  his  daughter,  Joanna  the  Mad,  the  New  World 
should  have  been  made  accessible  to  the  subjects  of  his  own  king- 
dom. This,  Oviedo  says,  was  the  case,  although  apparently  no 
decree  survives  which  formally  registers  the  change.  After  Ferdi- 
nand's death,  the  inheritance  of  the  Spanish  crowns  by  a  Fleming, 
and  his  evident  intention  to  distribute  among  his  Flemish  friends 
and  courtiers  the  offices  and  emoluments  of  the  Spanish  king- 
doms, made  Castilians  apprehensive  lest  the  American  trade 
might  also  become  a  perquisite  of  non-Spaniards,  or  perhaps  be 
transferred  from  Andalusia  altogether  to  some  foreign  port.  In 
the  Cortes  which  assembled  at  Santiago  and  Coruna  in  1520,  just 
prior  to  the  king's  return  to  the  north,  the  deputies  petitioned 
that  imder  no  circumstances  should  the  Casa  de  Contratacion  be 
removed  from  Seville,  or  its  officers  be  any  but  native  Castilians. 
Charles  replied  that  he  had  made  no  innovation  in  this  regard,  and 
intended  none ;  and  in  this  instance  he  kept  his  word.^  But  he  had 
made  no  promise  to  respect  the  commercial  monopoly  enjoyed  by 
Castilians,  and  the  edict  referred  to  by  Oviedo,  embracing  all  his 
subjects  within  the  Hapsburg  dominions,  was  issued  in  1526.2 

Two  transactions  before  that  year  were  indicative  of  the  policy 
the  new  sovereign  was  to  pursue.  In  1522  Jacob  Fugger  secured 
the  admission  of  German  merchants  to  a  share  in  the  projected 
spice  trade  with  the  Moluccas  by  way  of  the  Strait  of  Magellan. 
And  in  1525  the  Welsers  of  Augsburg  were  put  on  equal  footing 

1  Adas  de  las  Cortes  de  Castilla  y  Leon,  iv,  p.  322.  The  petition  also  appeared  in 
the  memorial  to  the  King  drawn  up  later  in  the  year  by  the  Santa  Junta,  during 
the  insurrection  of  the  Comuneros. 

*  Herrera,  dec.  iii,  lib.  10,  cap.  11.  Antunez  y  Acevedo  (pt.  v,  art.  i)  discredits 
the  testimony  of  Herrera,  on  no  ground  except  that  he  has  failed  to  find  a  copy  of 
the  original  decree.  Throughout  the  article,  the  eighteenth  century  writer  is  very 
evidently  pleading  a  special  case. 

At  least  as  early  as  1520,  families  of  emigrants  were  sent  to  the  Indies  from  the 
Canary  Islands.  A.  de  I.,  Patr.  2.  5.  1/6,  ramo  12.  Navarrese  were  declared 
naturalized  for  emigration  or  trade  with  America  by  a  decree  of  April  28,  1553. 
Encinas,  i,  pp.  174  f.;  Sol6rzano,  Pol.  hid.,  lib.  iv,  cap.  19.  A  law  of  1596  also  men- 
tions as  included  the  inhabitants  of  Majorca  and  Minorca.  Recap.,  lib.  ix,  tit.  27, 
ley  28. 


EMIGRATION  AND  THE  FOREIGN  INTERLOPER        99 

with  Spanish  traders  in  America;  on  the  basis  of  which  they 
immediately  established  factories  in  Seville  and  at  San  Domingo 
on  Hispaniola,  and  embarked  on  a  vigorous  program  of  colonial 
activity.*  Three  years  later,  in  the  spring  of  1528,  in  alliance  with 
another  German  house,  the  Ehinger  of  Constance,  they  concluded 
a  whole  series  of  agreements  with  the  Emperor:  in  January,  to 
carry  over  fifty  German  miners  for  the  instruction  of  the  Spanish 
colonists;  in  February,  to  supply  four  thousand  negro  slaves  to 
the  Indies  within  four  years;  and  in  March,  the  more  celebrated 
treaty  for  the  conquest  and  colonization  of  the  province  of  Vene- 
zuela.2  A  royal  order  of  April  4  also  conceded  to  them  the  ex- 
traordinary accommodation  of  storage  room  in  the  atarazanas, 
or  warehouse  of  the  Casa  de  Contratacion.  This  stood  on  the 
river  bank,  and  assured  them  a  place  in  the  often  overcrowded 
harbor  where  they  could  always  lade  and  unlade  their  merchan- 
dise and  ship's  stores.  In  the  same  year,  Ambrosius  Ehinger,  who 
had  been  factor  at  San  Domingo,  passed  over  to  Venezuela  as  the 
first  German  governor. 

In  contrast  to  the  enterprise  of  the  Welsers  was  the  prudent 
restraint  of  the  other  great  banking  house  of  Germany,  the  Fug- 
gers.  To  them,  even  more  than  to  the  Welsers,  the  Crown  was 
beholden  for  various  financial  services,  and  to  them  also  the  new 
regime  of  Charles  offered  opportimity  for  colonial  exploitation. 
But  only  once,  doubtless  under  the  influence  of  the  Venezuela 
compact,  did  they  contemplate  any  similar  adventure.  In  1530 
they  made  proposals  for  taking  over  the  coast  of  Chile,  and  a  for- 
mal agreement  was  drawn  up  in  the  following  year.  They  were  to 
have  the  government  of  all  they  conquered  and  discovered  within 
eight  years,  from  the  Strait  of  Magellan  to  the  limits  of  Peru, 
comprising  the  mainland  for  two  himdred  leagues  from  the  coast, 
and  all  islands  not  included  in  any  earlier  grant.  They  were  to 
bear  the  titles  of  Governor  and  Captain- General  for  three  lives, 
beginning  with  Anton  Fugger,  with  a  salary  of  4  per  cent  of  the 
net  royal  revenues,  and  the  title  of  Adelantado  in  perpetuity. 
They  were  to  build  four  forts,  though  none  in  a  seaport,  command 

^  Haebler,  Die  uberseeischen  Unternehmungen  der  Welser,  pp.  48-51. 
»  Ibid.,  pp.  53-56. 


lOO  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

of  which  was  reserved  to  them  and  their  heirs.  They  might  nomi- 
nate judicial,  municipal  and  other  oflSdals  to  the  king,  have  the 
proprietorship  of  one  fifth  of  the  soil  (though  nowhere  more  than 
thirty  leagues  square  or  including  a  seaport  or  a  capital  of  a  prov- 
ince), and  within  that  area  exercise  the  right  of  ecclesiastical  pat- 
ronage, save  in  the  case  of  a  bishopric.  The  contract  was  to  run 
from  the  first  day  of  1532,  within  twelve  months  of  which  their 
factor  must  have  a  fleet  of  three  or  four  vessels  fully  equipped 
and  ready  to  sail.  Five  hundred  colonists  must  be  sent  over  on 
the  first  three  expeditions;  but  the  second  need  not  depart  till 
news  arrived  from  the  first  of  the  nature  of  the  country.  And 
within  four  months  thereafter  they  had  permission  to  repudiate 
their  agreement.^ 

For  some  imknown  reason,  this  project  was  never  carried  out, 
although  we  hear  of  representatives  of  the  Fugger  house  in  other 
provinces  of  Spanish  America  in  following  years.  The  conquest  of 
Chile  was  left  to  Almagro  and  his  more  fortimate  successors  from 
Peru. 

These  concessions  to  foreign  merchants  and  bankers,  which  dis- 
tinguish the  poKcy  of  Charles  V  from  that  of  other  Spanish 
sovereigns,  may  have  been  the  expression  of  broader,  less  provin- 
cial ideas  in  the  mind  of  the  Emperor.  They  may  also  have  been 
the  consequence  of  pressure  brought  to  bear  by  these  same 
bankers  on  a  prince  already  dependent  upon  the  tender  mercies  of 
his  creditors.  Whatever  the  explanation,  the  privileges  thus 
secured  were  not  long  retained.  The  Welsers,  although  from  His- 
paniola  they  had  pushed  on  to  New  Spain,  exploiting  silver  mines 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Zultepeque,  gradually  withdrew  from  all 
their  American  undertakings.^  Their  colonial  venture  had  proved 
to  be  a  signal  failure.  In  Venezuela  no  German  settlements  were 
created;  after  about  ten  years,  trade  and  planting  were  aban- 

^  Rich  Collection  (Mss.  Dept.,  N.  Y.  Public  Library):  Papeles  varios  —  Sta. 
Fe,  Venezuela,  Amagim,  etc. 

2  Ulrich  Schmidt  accompanied  a  vessel  belonging  to  the  Welsers  in  the  fleet  of 
Pedro  de  Mendoza  to  the  Rio  de  la  Plata  in  1534,  and  has  left  us  a  celebrated  account 
of  his  experiences.  See  the  "  Voyage  of  Ulrich  Schmidt  to  the  rivers  La  Plata  and 
Paraguai,"  in  The  Conquest  of  the  River  Plate,  publ.  by  the  Hakluyt  Society  in 
1891. 


EMIGRATION  AND  THE  FOREIGN  INTERLOPER       lOI 

doned  for  the  gold  hunt,  culminating  in  unsuccessful  efforts  to 
find  the  fabled  El  Dorado;  the  regime  at  Coro  went  to  pieces, 
necessitating  the  intervention  of  the  Spanish  authorities;  and 
at  the  end  of  over  a  decade  of  litigation,  the  Welsers  were  com- 
pelled to  retire,  leaving  not  a  trace  of  German  occupation  in 
the  land. 

Meanwhile  the  custom  was  insensibly  renewed,  especially  in 
Charles'  later  years,  when  he  became  more  and  more  immersed 
in  imperial  affairs  and  left  the  regency  of  the  peninsula  to  his 
Spanish  son,  Philip,  of  excluding  strangers,  even  religious,  from 
America.  A  letter  of  the  Emperor  to  the  Council  of  the  Indies, 
dated  June  30, 1549,  in  response  to  proposals  by  the  Council  that 
foreigners  be  entirely  forbidden  to  trade  in  the  colonies,  is  illumi- 
nating. Charles  finds  it  inconvenient  publicly  to  revoke  the  privi- 
lege. But  he  reiterates  the  order  that  all  intending  to  cross  to  the 
Indies  must  come  in  person  to  the  Casa  de  Contratacion  to  be 
examined  and  obtain  a  license;  and  he  secretly  instructs  the  Casa 
to  find  excuses  for  granting  no  licenses  to  any  but  Spaniards.^ 
Thus  the  Emperor  was  compelled  to  choose  between  his  soHcitude 
for  his  German  and  Flemish  subjects  and  the  jealous  demands 
of  the  CastiHans.  The  enlightened  principles  of  1526  were  virt- 
ually abrogated,  though  the  statute  book  remained  unchanged. 
After  the  accession  of  Philip  to  full  sovereignty  in  1556,  practice 
and  theory  were  reconciled.  In  April  of  that  year  the  province  of 
Venezuela  was  escheated  to  the  Crown,  and  in  Jime  the  colonists 
in  America  stringently  forbidden  to  have  any  relations  with 
strangers  of  any  nation  whatsoever.^  Thereafter,  overseas  trade 
and  immigration  remained  the  monopoly  of  the  Spanish  people. 
The  maxim  might  have  been  a  profitable  one,  had  they  been  able 
to  supply  and  to  populate  so  vast  a  coimtry.  But  the  task  was 
beyond  their  strength,  and  the  consequences  in  many  ways 
disastrous. 

The  early  rule  was  that  every  passenger  for  America,  native  or 
foreigner,  no  matter  what  his  profession  or  purpose,  must  have  a 

^  Rich  Collection,  iv. 

'  Haebler,  op.  cit.,  pp.  389-391;  Recop.,  lib.  iii,  tit.  13,  ley  8. 


I02  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

permit  from  the  Crown  or,  in  some  cases,  from  the  Casa  de  Con- 
tratacion.i  Whatever  the  letter  of  the  law,  therefore,  the  king 
sometimes  granted  dispensations,  and  even  in  the  very  beginning 
the  appearance  of  foreigners  in  the  Spanish  settlements  was  not 
unusual.  A  letter  from  the  Catholic  Kings  to  Ovando  in  March, 
1503,  makes  it  clear  that  there  were  already  fifteen  residing  on 
Hispaniola.  The  governor  was  authorized  to  permit  them  to 
remain,  in  view  of  their  past  services,  but  to  receive  no  others  into 
the  colony .2  Every  emigrant  had  to  be  registered  in  a  book  kept 
by  the  contador  of  the  Casa,  in  which  were  set  down  his  name, 

^  Viajes,  ii,  p.  257  (c6dula  of  Sept.  3, 1501);  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xxxi,  p.  212 
(c6dula  of  Jan.  8,  1504);  Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1505,  no.  7. 

The  Casa  was  permitted  to  issue  licenses  to  Spanish  or  colonial  merchants,  to 
their  factors,  and  to  wives  of  men  already  in  the  Indies.  If  a  merchant  left  his  wife 
at  home,  he  had  to  have  her  written  consent,  and  give  security  of  at  least  1000 
ducats  that  he  would  return  within  three  years  or  bring  her  out  to  America.  Com- 
mercial factors  had  to  return  within  three  years,  whether  married  or  unmarried 
(decree  of  Dec.  1554).  Mestizos,  and  colonists  with  wives  in  the  Indies,  might  be 
compelled  by  the  Casa  to  return. 

Unmarried  women  were  absolutely  forbidden  to  go  to  the  colonies,  unless  they  were 
the  daughters  or  servants  of  migrating  families.  And  no  emigrant,  even  if  a  royal 
official,  might  sail  without  his  wife,  except  by  express  dispensation  from  the  Crown. 
Officials  had  to  have  a  permit  to  embark,  in  addition  to  their  royal  commissions, 
and  pass  through  the  same  formalities  at  the  Casa  as  ordinary  passengers.  Licenses 
indicated  the  number  of  servants  and  dependents  taken  along,  and  were  invalid  if 
not  used  within  two  years  of  the  date  of  issue.  Passengers  were  forbidden  to  sail 
in  the  guise  of  sailors  or  soldiers,  though  it  sometimes  happened  that  the  admirals, 
for  lack  of  soldiers,  were  permitted  to  enlist  passengers  in  that  service  during  the 
voyage. 

Residents  in  the  Indies,  if  they  wished  to  come  to  Spain,  had  likewise  to  secure 
formal  permission  from  the  viceroy,  president  or  governor  of  the  province,  declare 
their  reasons  for  the  voyage  and  the  intended  length  of  absence.  They  were  sup- 
posed also  to  obtain  a  certification  that  they  owed  nothing  to  the  royal  exchequer. 

There  seemed  to  be  particular  difficulty  in  compelling  married  merchants 
sojourning  in  the  colonic^  to  obey  the  law.  In  October,  1 544,  strict  orders  were  sent 
to  Peru  and  Mexico  that  such  persons  remaining  there  without  their  wives  be 
shipped  immediately  to  Spain,  unless  they  gave  sufficient  security  that  their  wives 
would  come  out  within  two  years;  and  similar  instructions  were  frequently  re- 
peated to  governors  and  viceroys  in  later  years.  Presumably  the  offenders  some- 
times compounded  with  the  government,  for  in  the  ledgers  of  the  colonial  treasurers 
we  find  "  penas  de  casados  "  itemized  as  a  fairly  regular,  though  inconsiderable, 
source  of  income. 

Encinas,  i,  pp.  4is-'422,  424,  426;  iv,  pp.  286  f.;  Recop.,  lib.  ix,  tit.  26,  leyes 
25,  29;  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  29. 

*  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xxxi,  p.  156. 


EMIGRATION  AND  THE  FOREIGN  INTERLOPER      103 

parentage,  birthplace,  whether  married  or  single,  the  ship  in 
which  he  was  sailing,  and  the  port  to  which  he  was  bound. ^  It 
was  a  useful  provision,  for  if  a  colonist  died  in  the  Indies,  there 
would  be  less  difficulty  in  tracing  his  heirs  at  home.  Registers 
of  trans- Atlantic  vessels  were  also  expected  to  include  a  personal 
description,  with  age  and  place  of  origin,  of  each  person  who 
embarked.2 

The  penalty  for  crossing  without  a  license  was  100,000  mara- 
vedis'  fine  and  ten  years'  banishment  from  Spain,  if  the  offender 
was  of  gentle  blood;  or  100  lashes  instead  of  the  fine,  if  a  person 
of  meaner  condition.  Judicial  authorities  in  the  colonies  were 
instructed  to  apprehend  unlicensed  new-comers,  and  ship  them 
back  to  Spain  on  the  first  available  vessel.  As  time  went  on,  the 
penalties  became  progressively  more  severe,  a  sure  indication  that 
fraud  was  common.  In  1560,  they  included  forfeiture  of  all  prop- 
erty, real  or  personal,  acquired  in  the  Indies.  In  1604,  the  100 
stripes  were  altered  to  four  years  in  the  galleys,  andin  162  2,  to  eight 
years;  while  banishment  for  persons  of  quality  was  narrowed  to 
ten  years  in  the  penal  colony  of  Oran.  After  1604,  ship  captains 
had  to  give  bond  for  1000  ducats  silver,  in  addition  to  the  ordinary 
sureties,  that  they  would  carry  no  imlicensed  persons,  and  if 
caught  in  delicto, not  only  forfeited  the  bond,  but  suffered  the  same 
punishment  as  the  offending  passengers.  By  a  decree  of  Novem- 
ber, 1607,  captains,  pilots,  boatswains,  etc.,  were  threatened  with 
the  death  penalty,  and  generals  and  admirals  of  the  fleets  with 
loss  of  rank  and  other  dignities.^  Veitia  Linaje,  however,  com- 
plained that  in  his  time  (circa  1670)  the  punishment  had  been 
reduced  to  a  pecimiary  fine,  to  the  grave  injury  of  the  colonies, 
and  especially  of  the  Seville  merchants.  For,  he  adds,  this  mild- 
ness filled  the  New  World  with  vagabonds,  and  the  fleets  with 
small  traders  who  ruined  the  American  fairs  for  the  great  export- 
ing houses.*  If  these  small  traders  helped  to  decrease  the  exorbi- 
tant profits  of  the  monopolists,  their  presence  was  no  doubt 
welcome  to  the  colonists.    In  the  eighteenth  century  there  was  a 

*  Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1552,  no.  65;  Enemas,  i,  p.  444. 
2  Encinas,  i,  pp.  398,  404  fif. 

*  Ord.  of  the  CasGy  1552,  nos.  1 21-124;  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  29,  par.  7,  32. 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  29,  par.  7. 


I04  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

return  to  the  earlier  strictness;  but  the  repeated  edicts  (1739, 1758, 
1778,  1785)  are  proof  that  the  practice  of  smuggling  passengers 
did  not  abate. ^ 

The  supervision  maintained  iDy  the  India  House  over  emigra- 
tion to  America  was  the  more  necessary,  as  the  government  en- 
deavored to  confine  the  privilege  to  persons  of  unquestioned 
orthodoxy.  As  far  back  as  1501,  Ovando,  on  preparing  to  go  to 
Hispaniola,  was  instructed  that  no  Jews,  Moors,  reconciled 
heretics,  or  recent  converts  from  Mohammedanism  be  allowed 
in  the  colony .^  In  1508  the  colonists  showed  themselves  to  be 
equally  solicitous,  for  the  two  proctors  from  Hispaniola  petitioned 
that  the  descendants  of  infidels  and  heretics,  down  to  the 
fourth  generation,  be  forbidden  to  enter  the  island.  Ferdinand 
complied  by  sending  orders  to  Ovando  and  to  the  ofl&cers  in  Se- 
ville, debarring  the  sons  and  grandsons  of  Jews,  Moors  and  "  con- 
versos,"  and  the  sons  of  those  who  had  come  into  the  hands  of  the 
Inquisition. 3  In  15 18  and  many  times  thereafter  these  prohibi- 
tions were  reenacted,  and  extended  to  include  also  the  grandsons 
of  heretics*;  but  they  were  evidently  difl&cult  or  impossible  to 
enforce,  especially  as  the  conversos  or  New  Christians  com- 
prised the  very  class  most  apt  to  possess  the  capital  required  tb 
develop  the  colonial  trade.  Relief  from  these  restrictions,  more- 
over, was  a  tempting  financial  expedient  to  the  chronically  empty 
Spanish  treasury,  and  as  early  as  1509  reconciled  New  Christians 
were  permitted,  in  return  for  a  heavy  composition,  to  go  to  the 
Indies  and  trade  there  for  the  space  of  two  years  on  each  voyage.^ 
Indeed,  commercial  attractions  proved  so  powerful  that  in  the 
later  sixteenth  and  in  the  seventeenth  century  conversos  were 
found  in  America  in  ever  increasing  numbers;  especially  Portu- 
guese, for  after  the  annexation  of  Portugal  by  Philip  II  in  1580, 
subjects  of  that  kingdom  seem  to  have  experienced  little  diflSculty, 

*  Antunez  y  Acevedo,  pp.  322-326.  '  Ihid.y  2d  ser.,  v,  pp.  133  f. 

*  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xxx,  p.  13. 

*  Ibid.,  ist  ser.,  xviii,  pp.  9,  138;  xlii,  p.  476;  Enemas,  i,  pp.  452,  454;  Recop.y 
lib.  ix,  tit.  26,  leyes  15, 16. 

Gipsies  were  also  excluded  from  the  American  colonies,  and  frequent  orders 
were  sent  out  to  expel  them. 

*  Lea,  Inquisition  in  the  Spanish  DependencieSy  pp.  193  f. 


EMIGRATION  AND  THE  FOREIGN  INTERLOPER      I05 

with  or  without  license,  in  reaching  the  Spanish  colonies.  The 
vigorous  measures  taken  between  1625  and  1640  to  exterminate 
the  Portuguese  judaizers  in  Spain  was  soon  reflected  in  the  ter- 
rible activity  of  the  Lima  inquisition  in  the  years  1634-39,  and  in 
that  of  the  Mexican  tribunal  in  the  following  decade.^ 

One  might  gather  from  these  measures  that  emigration  to  the 
New  World  was  from  the  begimung  rapid  and  easily  maintained. 
It  has  often  been  asserted  that  the  depopulation  of  Spain  under 
the  Hapsburgs  was  due  to  the  superior  attractions  of  the  Ameri- 
can continent.  The  case  has  never  been  estabUshed.  And  in  the 
first  three  decades  at  least,  before  the  occupation  of  the  richer 
regions  on  the  mainland,  the  transplanting  of  colonists  was  slow 
and  discouraging.  It  is  even  probable  that  Columbus  had  diffi- 
culty in  securing  companions  for  his  third  voyage;  for  a  decree  of 
June  22,  1497,  authorized  the  justices  of  the  kingdom  to  deliver 
men  and  women  condemned  to  death  or  transportation  to  the 
admiral's  agents  for  banishment  to  Hispaniola.^  In  1499,  the 
Spanish  sovereigns  exempted  for  twenty  years  such  as  would  go 
and  settle  in  the  Indies  from  every  form  of  local  taxation  to  which 
their  other  subjects  were  liable.*  But  emigration  apparently 
failed  to  pick  up,  for  the  prospects  for  the  planter  or  miner  were 
still  meagre,  and  the  perils  to  life  and  health  very  great.  The 
elaborate  preKminaries  of  inquiry  and  examination  by  the  Casa 
must  have  been  expensive  for  the  poor  artisan  or  farmer.  Their 
searching  character,  too,  doubtless  deterred  many  who  might 
otherwise  have  tried  their  fortunes  overseas.  In  September,  1 5 1 1 , 
therefore,  the  bars  were  temporarily  dropped,  any  Spaniard  was 
allowed  to  emigrate  without  formalities  beyond  the  registration 
of  his  name  and  residence,  and  inducements  were  again  ofifered  of 
lesser  taxation  on  the  other  side.  Sons  and  grandsons  of  infidels 
and  heretics,  however,  were  forbidden  to  hold  any  repartimiento 
of  Indians,  or  office  of  a  public  character  in  the  Indies.* 

1  Lea,  Inquisition  in  the  Spanish  Dependencies y  pp.  229,  419. 

'  ViajeSj  ii,  pp.  207,  209,  212;  iii,  p.  507. 

'  Colecc.  de  doc.y  2d  ser.,  ix,  p.  109. 

*  Encinas,  i,  p.  396;  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser,,  v,  pp.  307,  331.  See  also  the  privi- 
leges and  exemptions  conceded  to  those  who  would  accompany  Pedrarias  Ddvila 
for  the  colonization  of  Tierra  Firme  in  1513,  ibid.,  ix,  pp.  4-21. 


Io6  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

One  of  the  chief  obstacles  to  pemianent  and  effective  coloniza- 
tion was  the  Spaniards'  greed  for  gold.  When  tJie  gold-washings 
on  the  islands  were  exhausted,  the  inhabitants  drifted  on  to  Darien 
and  Central  America,  and  later  to  the  provinces  of  New  Spain. 
On  the  mainland  this  same  passion  blinded  them  to  the  rich 
agricultural  possibilities  at  their  very  feet.  As  a  result,  the  pop- 
ulation was  in  a  condition  of  economic  instability,  both  in  the 
Antilles  and  on  the  continent.  As  early  as  15 17  and  15 18,  the 
Hieronymite  fathers  and  others  complained  to  the  cardinal-regent 
Ximenes  and  to  the  king  of  the  growing  depopulation  of  His- 
paniola,  and  of  the  increasing  imrest  of  those  who  were  left  behind. 
Word,  too,  came  from  Tierra  Firme  that  the  region  remained 
impeopled  because  of  the  Spaniards'  single  devotion  to  the  search 
for  treasure.  And  both  in  15 18  and  1520  the  citizens  of  San 
Domingo  urged  that  foreigners,  especially  Genoese  and  French, 
be  permitted  to  emigrate  and  settle.^ 

This  situation  impelled  the  Crown  to  offer  still  greater  attrac- 
tions to  the  prospective  colonial  farmer.  Those  who  would  go  to 
Tierra  Firme  or  Hispaniola  were  promised  free  passage  and  main- 
tenance from  the  day  they  arrived  in  Seville  till  they  disembarked 
in  America.  They  were  to  be  furnished  with  lands,  implements, 
plants,  and  live  stock,  and  their  living  for  a  year,  until  they  were 
settled  and  cultivation  was  under  way.  For  twenty  years  they 
would  be  relieved  of  the  alcabala  and  all  other  payments  except 
the  ecclesiastical  tithe.  Lands  would  be  given  them  in  as  large 
quantity  as  each  desired  to  cultivate,  and  would  remain  theirs 
and  their  heirs'  forever.  The  king  would  order  the  best  locations 
to  be  sought  out  for  their  villages,  the  communal  rights  attaching 
to  which  would  descend  to  their  children.  Physicians  and  apothe- 
caries would  be  sent  them,  and  the  first  son  of  any  immigrant  to 
marry  in  the  colony  would  receive  lands,  live  stock,  etc.,  on  the 
same  terms  as  the  father.  Finally,  premiums  were  offered  for  the 
best  husbandry:  30,000  maravedis  to  the  first  who  produced 
twelve  pounds  of  silk;  20,000  maravedis  to  the  one  who  first 
gathered  ten  poimds  of  cloves,  ginger,  cinnamon  or  other  spices; 
15,000  maravedis  for  the  first  1500  pounds  of  woad;  and  10,000 
^  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  i,  pp.  281,  293,  298,  362,  389,  428;  xl,  p.  565. 


EMIGRATION  AND  THE  FOREIGN  INTERLOPER      lOJ 

for  the  first  hundred  weight  of  hulled  rice  or  olive  oil.^  This  par- 
ticular edict  appeared  in  response  to  the  representations  of  the 
bishop,  Las  Casas,  and  the  worthy  priest  was  instructed  to  travel 
through  the  towns  and  villages  of  Castile,  exhorting  the  laborers 
to  emigrate,  and  explaining  to  them  the  excellences  of  these  newly- 
discovered  lands.  The  same  terms  were  repeated  in  a  decree  of 
the  following  May,  and  were  renewed  by  Charles  V  in  1531. 

Meantime,  in  November,  1526,  the  Crown  had  to  adopt  the 
extreme  measure  of  forbidding  migration  from  the  Antilles  to  the 
continent,  on  pain  of  death  and  confiscation  of  property .^  But 
such  a  rule  could  not  be  enforced,  and  its  terms  were  gradually 
modified.  An  order  of  1534  made  the  permission  of  the  governor 
necessary  for  any  one  to  pass  from  one  province  or  island  in  the 
Indies  to  another.  And  by  1548,  apparently,  Spanish  subjects  in 
the  colonies  had  the  right  to  go  and  live  wherever  they  pleased. ^ 
The  Crown,  however,  in  spite  of  its  desire  to  foster  emigration, 
continued  its  policy  against  infidels  and  heretics,  and  applied  it 
with  ever-increasing  thoroughness.  Purity  of  faith  and  of  Spanish 
blood  —  "  limpieza  de  sangre  "  —  remained  the  ideal.* 

To  turn  from  emigration  to  the  matter  of  trade  in  particular: 
from  the  time  of  Philip  II,  a  merchant,  to  engage  in  trans- 
Atlantic  commerce  or  navigation,  had  to  be  a  native  Spaniard. 
That  was  interpreted  to  mean  that  he  must  be  the  son  of  a 
Spanish  father,  or  of  a  Catholic  foreigner  who  had  acquired  a 
domicile  in  Spain  of  at  least  ten  years'  standing.  Such  seems  to 
have  been  the  accepted  practice  till  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 

1  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  ix,  pp.  77-83  (cedula  of  Sept.  10,  1518).  These  pre- 
miums represented  no,  73 J,  55  and  37  dollars  in  silver  respectively,  not  the 
figures  given  by  Bourne  {Spain  in  America,  p.  217). 

2  Lowery,  The  Spanish  Settlements  within  the  Present  Limits  of  the  United  States, 
i,  p.  173. 

3  Herrera,  dec.  iii,  lib.  10,  cap.  2;  Encinas,  i,  pp.  411,  433. 

*  Velasco  (Geografia  .  .  .  de  las  Indias)  says  that  San  Domingo,  which  for- 
merly had  a  thousand  householders,  in  1574  possessed  no  more  than  500.  Santiago 
de  Cuba,  at  one  time  as  populous  as  San  Domingo,  and  provided  with  one  of  the 
best  harbors  in  the  Indies,  was  reduced  to  30  householders.  At  the  same  time, 
there  were  3000  in  Mexico  City,  2000  in  Lima,  500  in  Puebla  de  los  Angeles, 
400  in  Panama,  and  250  in  Cartagena. 


I 


I08  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

century.  Early  in  the  eighteenth,  the  right  of  Spanish-born  sons 
of  foreign  residents  to  a  share  in  the  trade  was  disputed  by  the 
Consulado,  but  in  the  end  the  Council  of  the  Indies  sustained  the 
older  practice.^  Neither  the  sons  nor  the  grandsons  of  foreign 
residents,  however,  might  vote  or  be  candidates  for  office  in  the 
Consulado.  The  law,  as  published  in  the  Recopilacion  of  1681, 
forbade  strangers  to  trade  with  the  colonies  from  Spain,  or  with 
Spain  from  the  colonies,  either  on  their  own  account  or  through 
the  intermediary  of  a  Spaniard  or  company  of  Spaniards.  The 
penalty  for  infraction  of  the  rule  was  forfeiture  of  the  goods  in- 
volved, and  of  all  other  property  of  the  culprits,  not  only  of  the 
foreigner  who  attempted  to  trade,  but  also  of  the  native  who 
shielded  him  behind  a  Spanish  name.^  Colonists  who  had  any- 
thing to  do  with  them  were  ordered  to  be  sent  prisoner  to  Spain 
(decree  of  March,  1557),  and  in  the  seventeenth  century  were  put 
in  jeopardy  of  their  lives.' 

It  was  policy,  however,  to  concede  a  sort  of  naturalization  to 
strangers  who,  though  bom  outside  the  peninsula,  gave  proof  of 
their  desire  to  make  Spain  their  permanent  home,  and  established 
themselves  there  with  family  and  property.  Absolute  exclusion, 
moreover,  was  difficult  or  impossible  even  for  the  doctrinaire 
Philip  II,  when  foreign  merchant-bankers  made  themselves 
indispensable  to  the  smooth  working  of  the  Spanish  exchequer, 
and  when  the  products  of  the  peninsula  fell  far  short  of  supplying 
the  needs  of  the  American  colonists.  Very  early,  therefore,  certain 
foreign-bom  residents  secured  the  right  of  admission  to  the  India 
traffic. 

In  Febmary,  1505,  Ferdinand  the  Catholic,  in  reply  to  a  doubt 
expressed  by  the  officers  of  the  Casa  as  to  the  definition  of  the 
term  "  foreigner,"  gave  the  opinion  that  strangers  resident  in 
Seville,  Cadiz,  or  Jerez,  who  possessed  real  estate  and  a  family, 
and  had  lived  in  the  country  for  the  space  of  fifteen  or  twenty 
years,  might  be  considered  as  naturalized  for  purposes  of  trade 

1  Antunez  y  Acevedo,  pt.  v,  art.  2,  3;  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  v,  p.  74. 

2  Recop.,  lib.  ix,  tit.  27,  ley  i. 

'  Ibid.,  lib.  iii,  tit.  13,  ley  8;  lib.  ix,  tit.  27,  ley  7;  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  31, 
par.  10. 


EMIGRATION  AND  TEE  FOREIGN  INTERLOPER      IO9 

with  the  New  World.^  And  in  the  following  month  he  embodied 
the  substance  of  this  opinion  in  a  decree  which  included  all  foreign 
residents  of  Castile,  provided,  however,  they  acted  not  as  princi- 
pals, but  in  association  with  Spanish  merchants,  and  used  Span- 
iards as  their  factors  abroad.  The  rule  was  put  on  a  broader  basis 
in  an  edict  of  July  14,1561.  Any  merchant  who  had  lived  in  Spain 
or  America  for  ten  years,  with  a  house  and  other  real  property, 
and  married  a  Spanish  woman,  was  to  be  regarded  as  a  subject  of 
the  king.2  Bachelors  were  specifically  barred.  After  1608,  twenty 
years  continuous  residence  were  required,  and  the  applicant  had 
to  go  to  the  Council  of  the  Indies  for  a  decree  of  naturalization 
expressly  habilitating  him  for  the  India  traffic.  But  even  such  a 
decree  did  not  empower  him  to  vote  in  the  Consulado,  or  to  own 
or  command  ships  in  the  American  navigation.  He  might  trade, 
moreover,  only  with  his  own  capital,  or  forfeit  his  license  and  all 
of  his 'estate.^ 

Licenses  for  a  single  voyage,  or  for  a  limited  time,  were  occa- 
sionally issued  to  persons  otherwise  excluded  from  this  commerce. 
Sometimes  they  were  given  in  recompense  for  particular  services 
rendered  the  Crown,  especially  if  of  a  pecuniary  nature.  More 
often  they  were  for  the  transport  of  cargoes  of  negroes,  the  supply- 
ing of  which  was  generally  in  the  hands  of  foreigners  —  Portu- 
guese, Germans,  Dutch,  or  Genoese.  An  order  of  May,  1557, 
directed  that  such  visitors  to  the  colonies  must  not  enter  into  the 
country  with  their  negroes  or  other  merchandise,  but  make  their 
trade  in  the  port  to  which  their  license  assigned  them.* 

These  elaborate  rules  governing  the  right  of  trade,  as  in  so 
many  other  instances  of  overregulation,  seemed  made  only  to 
be  evaded.  In  spite  of  the  law,  great  numbers  of  unlicensed 
persons  found  their  way  to  the  Indies.  The  preparation  of  forged 
certificates  became  a  profession  at  Seville;   and  when  punish- 

*  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  v,  pp.  74,  78. 
'  Encinas,  i,  p.  449. 

'  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  31,  par.  9;  Recop.,  lib.  ix,  tit.  27,  ley  31.  Within 
thirty  days  of  the  issue  of  the  license,  a  sworn  statement  of  the  merchant's  property 
had  to  be  filed  with  the  judicial  authorities  of  the  town  in  which  he  resided,  or  the 
license  was  invalid.  In  16 18  the  minimum  amount  of  property  necessary  to  secure 
such  a  decree  was  fixed  at  4000  ducats  in  silver. 

*  Recop.,  lib.  ix,  tit.  27,  ley  4. 


no  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

ments  were  made  more  severe,  the  principal  effect  was  to  in- 
crease the  price  of  these  desirable  papers,  and  develop  the 
ingenuity  of  brokers  and  buyers.  A  letter  to  the  Casa  de  Con- 
tratacion,  in  November,  1546,  explains  that  persons  pretending 
to  go  only  to  the  Canaries  were,  in  collusion  with  the  ship's 
captain,  carried  to  America,  or  were  taken  on  board  at  San 
Lucar  after  the  inspectors  had  left  the  vessel.  Another  letter  to 
the  Casa  in  September,  1560,  was  directed  against  foreigners  and 
other  forbidden  persons  who  went  over  secretly,  as  sailors,  sol- 
diers or  would-be  merchants  or  factors,  or  who  landed  from  foreign 
vessels  professing  to  be  driven  by  tempest  into  Indian  ports.  The 
officials  were  charged  to  keep  closer  watch,  and  to  see  that  the 
legal  penalties  were  carried  out.^  Admonitions  of  this  character 
were  frequently  sent  out  to  the  various  provinces  of  the  Indies: 
in  155 1,  to  the  governor  and  officials  of  Tierra  Firme;  in  1564,  to 
the  governor  of  Guatemala;  in  1568  to  the  audiencia  at  Lima, 
mentioning  especially  Portuguese  and  gipsies;  in  1571,  to  the 
governor  of  Cartagena  and  the  audiencia  of  Panama;  in  1587, 
to  the  viceroy  of  Peru,  complaining  that  the  host  of  foreigners  at 
Potosi  added  to  the  number  of  idlers,  increased  public  disorder, 
and  raised  the  price  of  foodstuffs.^ 

As  foreigners  continued,  nevertheless,  to  appear  in  the  colonies, 
the  government,  at  some  time  near  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, began  to  temporize  with  what  was  evidently  an  irretrievable 
situation.  If  strangers  could  not  be  kept  out,  they  might  at  least 
be  made  to  compound  the  illegality  of  their  presence,  and  inci- 
dentally help  meet  the  exigencies  of  an  impoverished  Crown. 
A  certain  Miguel  Sanchez  de  la  Parra  presented  a  memorial  to  the 
king  in  1584,  presumably  from  Peru,  in  which  he  suggested  that 
every  foreigner  or  Spaniard  in  the  viceroyalty  without  a  hcense  be 
fined  50  pesos,  or  if  he  was  rich,  more  according  to  his  means.  It 
would  not  only  create  a  new  source  of  revenue,  but  would  protect 
these  xmauthorized  residents  from  the  blackmail  of  colonial 
officials;  for,  he  continued,  "  viven  estos  con  gran  temor  porque 
cada  vez  que  quiere  un  alguacil  6  ministro  de  justicia  destruir 
alguno  por  algun  enojo  que  con  el  tenga,  le  piden  la  licencia  con 

1  Encinas,  i,  pp.  398,  443.  '  Ibid.,  pp.  446,  451,  461. 


EMIGRATION  AND  THE  FOREIGN  INTERLOPER       III 

que  paso  de  Espana,  y  como  no  la  tiene,  le  prenden,  y  le  cuesta 
mucho  dinero  y  desasosiego,  y  al  cabo  le  hacen  gastar  lo  que  tiene, 
y  no  le  vuelven  k  Espana,  fuera  de  que  dan  muchas  dadivas  por- 
que  les  dejen."  ^  This  or  a  similar  proposal  was  acted  upon,  for 
in  the  early  nineties  a  scheme  of  pecuniary  compositions  was  in 
effect.  We  have  a  letter  of  Philip,  dated  January  13,  1596,  in 
reply  to  a  communication  from  one  of  the  judges  of  the  Lima 
audiencia,  advising  greater  leniency  in  the  matter,  especially 
toward  poor  foreigners,  and  toward  those  who  were  naturalized  or 
were  vassals  of  the  Spanish  Crown  (i.  e.,  Flemings,  Italians,  etc.). 
Those  who  had  lived  in  the  Indies  many  years,  had  shared  in  the 
discoveries  or  served  the  community  in  other  capacities,  were 
married  and  had  sons  and  grandsons  in  the  colony,  or  who  held 
encomiendas  of  Indians,  were  to  be  passed  over,  even  though 
technically  liable.  This  mode  of  relief,  however,  was  to  apply  only 
to  those  already  living  in  America,  and  under  no  circumstances  to 
foreign  clergy  or  unmarried  women.  In  the  future,  imhcensed 
persons  must  not  be  permitted  to  disembark,  but  be  sent  back 
immediately  to  Spain.  The  fines  were  not  a  regular  tax,  but  a 
payment  which,  once  made,  permanently  legitimatized  one's 
residence  in  the  colonies.  From  time  to  time,  apparently,  general 
orders  (cedulas  generales  de  composiciones)  were  issued  by  the 
Crown  to  mulct  foreigners  whose  presence  was  not  in  one  way  or 
another  accounted  for;  and  no  viceroy,  president  or  governor 
might  act  without  such  authorization.  Those  who  had  paid  their 
fines  could  engage  in  trade,  except  with  the  metropolis,  or  be- 
tween Peru  and  Mexico,  or  with  the  PhiHppine  Islands.  They 
must  live  in  the  interior,  therefore,  away  from  the  maritime  ports, 
as  far  as  seemed  best  to  the  local  magistrates,  so  as  to  have  no 
connection  or  correspondence  with  over-seas  traffic.^ 

As  pointed  out  in  an  earlier  chapter,  there  was  a  vast  amount  of 
clandestine  trade  between  Spain  and  America.  Much  of  it  was  an 
effort  to  shield  those  whom  the  law  so  rigorously  excluded.  At 
Cadiz  and  at  San  Lucar,  foreign  merchants  laded  goods  upon  the 

^  Colecc.  de  Espana,  civ,  p.  283. 

'  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xix,  p.  47;  Recap.,  lib.  ix,  tit.  27,  leyes  12-17,  20,  21. 


1 1 2  TRADE  AND  NA  VIGA  TION 

flotas  directly  from  their  own  vessels  in  the  harbor,  without  regis- 
try at  the  Casa  de  Contratacion,  and  on  the  return  of  the  fleet, 
received  their  value  in  ingots  of  gold  and  silver  by  the  same 
device.^  Or,  to  elude  the  law,  they  traded  imder  the  name  of 
Spanish  merchants  established  in  Seville,  who  became  little  more 
than  factors  of  foreign  commercial  houses.  In  1670,  M.  Lemonnet 
wrote  to  Colbert  concerning  this  trafl&c: 

.  .  .  toutes  les  marchandises  qu'on  leur  donne  a  porter  aux  Indes  sont 
chargees  sous  le  nom  d'Espagnols,  qui  bien  souvent  n'en  ont  pas  connais- 
sance,  ne  jugeant  pas  a  propos  de  leur  en  parler,  afin  de  tenir  les  affaires  plus 
secretes  et  qu'il  n'y  ait  que  le  commissionaire  a  le  savoir,  lequel  en  rend 
compte  a  son  retour  des  Indes,  directemente  a  celui  qui  en  a  donne  la  car- 
gaison  en  confiance  sans  avoir  nul  egard  pour  ceux  au  nom  desquels  le 
chargement  a  ete  fait,  et  lorsque  ces  commissionaires  reviennent  des  Indes 
soit  sur  les  flottes  galions  ou  navires  particuliers,  ils  apportent  leur  argent 
dans  leurs  coffres,  la  pluspart  entre  pont  et  sans  connoissement." 

Although  written  in  the  second  half  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
Lemonnet's  letter  appKed  as  much  to  conditions  in  the  sixteenth, 
as  to  later  times.  The  king,  in  October,  1569,  warned  the  officials 
of  the  Casa  to  beware,  when  dispatching  the  fleets,  lest  foreigners 
embarked  merchandise  in  the  name  of  a  third  party;  and  a  cedula 
four  years  later,  addressed  to  officers  in  the  Indies,  ordered  them 
to  keep  a  sharp  lookout  for  such  shipments,  and  send  advice  to 
Seville  of  the  persons  by  whom  they  had  been  consigned,  so  that 

1  "  Les  etrangers  pour  le  compte  desquels  les  effets  sont  venus,  se  servant  de 
jeunes  gentilshommes  espagnols  qu'on  appelle  *  metedores.'  Ce  sont  des  cadets  des 
meilleures  maisons  du  pays  qui  n'ont  pas  de  biens.  Les  marchands  leur  donnent 
I  %  de  toutes  les  marchandises  qu'ils  leur  sauvent,  et  moyennant  ce  profit  ils  vont 
prendre  les  barres  d'or  et  d'argent  qui  sont  entrees  d  Cadix  et  les  jettent  de  dessus 
les  remparts  sur  le  bord  de  la  mer,  ou  d'autres  metedores,  qui  se  tiennent  la  expres, 
les  reprennent,  et  selon  le  chiffre  qui  est  marque  sur  le  ballot,  ils  le  portent  dans  la 
chaloupe  de  celui  a  qui  il  appartient.  On  gagne  pour  cela  le  gouvemeur,  le  major  et 
I'alcade  de  Cadix,  aussi  bien  que  les  sentinelles  qui  sont  sur  les  remparts  et  qui 
voient  tout  cela  sans  en  rien  dire.  Ces  metedores  remportent  d'ordinaire  k  chaque 
retour  des  flottes  2,000  ou  3,000  pistoles,  qu'ils  vont  depenser  a  Madrid,  o\X  ils  sont 
connus  de  tout  le  monde  pour  faire  ce  metier-lu." 

Quoted  by  E.  W.  Dahlgren  from  a  "  Memoire  touchant  le  conmierce  des  Indes 
Occidentals  par  Cadix,  1691,"  among  the  Spanish  papers  in  the  French  Foreign 
Archives.     Les  relations  commercialese  etc.,  p.  42. 

*  Margry,  Relations  et  memoires  inSdits  pour  servir  d  Vhistoire  de  la  France  dans 
les  pays  d'otUremer,  p.  185. 


EMIGRATION  AND  THE  FOREIGN  INTERLOPER      1 13 

proceedings  might  be  instituted  against  them  in  Spain. ^  After 
1592  the  law  forbade  a  foreigner  to  dispose  of  goods  to  a  Spanish 
subject  to  be  paid  for  in  the  Indies,  as  it  occasioned  the  with- 
drawal of  American  bullion  to  other  countries,  often  without 
touching  Spanish  shores.  Pa)mients  must  be  made  at  the  place 
where  the  sale  was  concluded,  or  at  least  somewhere  within  the 
Spanish  peninsula.^  In  effect,  therefore,  no  gold,  silver  or  other 
commodities  might  be  withdrawn  from  the  colonies  in  the  name 
of,  or  consigned  to,  any  but  a  Spaniard. 

We  learn  from  a  royal  provision  of  June,  1540,  that  Portu- 
guese vessels  were  in  the  habit  of  sailing  from  Spain  presumably 
for  the  Canary  Islands,  but  going  to  the  West  Indies  instead,  there 
making  their  trade,  and  lading  a  return  cargo  which  they  carried 
directly  to  Portugal.  Or  the  Portuguese  captain  touched  at  the 
Canaries,  made  a  fictitious  sale  of  the  vessel  to  one  of  the  islanders, 
and  continued  the  voyage  as  master  of  a  pretended  Spanish  ship. 
And  because  of  the  lower  rates  offered  by  these  foreign  captains, 
Andalusian  vessels  in  the  Indies  were  deprived  of  their  freights. 
Reiterated  orders  were  issued  by  the  Crown  to  the  authorities  at 
Seville  and  in  the  colonies  for  the  suppression  of  this  practice.^ 

Under  the  later  Hapsburgs,  with  the  increasing  demands  of  the 
colonies  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  utter  ruin  of  Spanish  industry 
on  the  other,  the  dependence  of  the  Seville  export  commerce  upon 
foreign  manufactures  was  complete.  They  supplied  five  sixths  of 
the  cargoes  of  the  outbound  fleets.  It  was  a  time,  therefore,  of 
almost  imiversal  contraband  trade;  and  as  the  government 
seemed  powerless  to  stop  it  without  threatening  the  very  con- 
tinuance of  commimications  with  its  American  empire,  it  recom- 
pensed itself  by  imposing  heavy  fines  or  "  indultos."  It  was  also 
furnished,  incidentally,  with  a  convenient  instrument  of  retalia- 
tion upon  imfriendly  nations.  Veitia  Linaje,  as  treasurer  of 
the  India  House,  took  part  in  proceedings  of  this  nature  in  1667, 
on  the  occasion  of  the  outbreak  of  war  with  France.  As  a  measure 

^  Encinas,  i,  p.  447. 

'  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  18,  par.  23;  cap.  31,  par.  9;  Recop.,  lib.  ix,  tit.  27, 
ley  3. 

'  Coleu.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  x,  p.  516;  Encinas,  i,  pp.  442, 447. 


1 1 4  TRADE  AND  NA  VIGA TION 

of  reprisal,  all  goods  consigned  to  Frenchmen  on  the  galleons 
arriving  in  that  year  were  to  be  seized ;  and  to  make  sure  of  their 
quarry,  the  Council  decided  to  place  immediately  on  each  of  the 
vessels  a  person  of  high  rank  to  take  the  business  in  hand.  For  the 
purpose  were  chosen  seven  of  the  ranking  members  of  the  Casa 
and  four  from  the  Audiencia  of  Seville,  and  the  president  was 
empowered  to  add  as  many  subordinate  officers  as  he  deemed 
advisable.  When  the  merchants  realized  what  preparations  were 
being  made  for  the  reception  of  the  galleons,  they  came  forward 
with  a  composition  or  indult  of  200,000  pesos.  And  in  addition, 
says  Veitia  Linaje,  this  unwonted  zeal  resulted  in  the  declaration 
or  "  manifestacion  "  of  more  unregistered  silver  than  ever  before 
in  the  history  of  the  Casa.^ 

On  the  other  hand,  in  that  age  when  all  Europe  was  dominated 
by  the  aggressive  spirit  of  Louis  XIV,  French  squadrons  some- 
times appeared  off  Cadiz  at  the  time  the  American  fleets  were  ex- 
pected to  sail  or  arrive,  to  suggest  circumspection  on  the  part  of 
the  Spanish  government.  Under  the  protection  of  French  cannon 
—  for  it  amounted  to  that  —  Frenchmen  were  free  to  transgress 
the  law  of  the  country,  either  embarking  their  merchandise  on  the 
galleons  or  abstracting  from  them  bullion  for  export  abroad.  And 
sometimes  the  French  king  even  threatened  to  let  loose  upon  the 
Spaniards  in  the  West  Indies  the  buccaneers  and  pirates  of  that 
region,  if  their  government  put  any  obstacle  in  the  way  of  this 
clandestine  commerce.  In  the  instructions  to  the  Marquis  of 
Villars,  appointed  ambassador  to  Madrid  in  1679,  we  read: 

Et,  comme,  sur  rexecution  de  tous  les  points  contenus  en  la  presente 
instruction,  Sa  Majeste  est  persuadee  qu'il  faut  toujours  qu'outre  les  raisons 
de  justice,  d'equite  et  I'execution  des  traites,  les  Espagnols  connaissent 
qu'eUe  est  toujours  en  etat  de  se  faire  faire  raison  par  sa  puissance,  lorsqu'ils 
ne  la  veulent  pas  faire,  Sa  Majeste  veut  que  ledit  marquis  de  Villars  soit 
informe  qu'elle  tiendra  toujours  en  mer  de  fortes  escadres  de  vaisseaux,  sur 
les  cotes  de  son  royaume  et  d'Espagne,  et  meme  dans  les  iles  de  I'Amerique 
et  dans  le  golfe  du  Mexique,  lesquelles  paraitront  souvent,  soit  aux  rades  de 

^  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  18,  par.  11.  According  to  a  French  memoir,  the 
galleons  arriving  at  Cadiz  in  1682  brought  from  America  22,809,000  pesos.  Of  this 
sum,  2^  millions  went  to  France,  2§  to  England,  3§  to  Holland,  and  42  to  Genoa, 
altogether  13  millions.    Dahlgren,  Les  relations  commerciales,  etc.,  i,  p.  77,  note  3. 


EMIGRATION  AND  THE  FOREIGN  INTERLOPER      II5 

Cadix,  lors  du  depart  ou  du  retour  des  galions,  soit  sur  leur  route,  lorsqu'ils 
partiront  des  ports  de  rAmerique,  afin  que  Sa  Majeste  puisse  prendre  les 
resolutions  qu'elle  estimera  necessaires  au  bien  de  son  service.^ 

The  most  serious  and  widespread  development  of  contraband 
trade,  however,  was  in  merchandise  introduced  into  the  colonies 
directly  from  foreign  markets.  Portuguese,  French,  Dutch  and 
other  interlopers  smuggled  their  cargoes  into  the  West  Indies, 
through  the  closed  port  of  Buenos  Aires,  or  even  to  the  Pacific 
shores  of  Spanish  America.  The  illicit  trader  was  eagerly  wel- 
comed by  the  colonists,  for  he  supplied  their  needs  at  reasonable 
prices,  gave  them  an  opportunity  of  enriching  themselves  and  of 
adding  to  the  comforts  and  luxuries  of  living.  Two  circumstances 
combined  to  make  this  commerce  easy.  One  was  the  great  length 
of  sparsely  settled  coast  on  both  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific  sides 
of  the  continent,  effective  surveillance  over  which  was  beyond  the 
resources  of  any  nation  in  that  era.  The  other  was  the  venality  of 
Spanish  governors  in  the  ports  themselves.  Apparently  they  often 
tolerated  or  even  encouraged  the  traffic,  on  the  plea  that  the 
necessities  of  the  colonists  demanded  it.  They  not  only  accepted 
bribes,  but  engaged  in  the  buying  and  selling  of  contraband 
articles.  . 

This  interlopers'  trade  had  its  inception  very  early,  almost  as 
soon  as  the  Spaniards  were  well  established  in  the  New  World. 
The  exploitation  of  a  virgin  continent  appealed  from  the  first  to 
adventurous  spirits  outside  the  Iberian  kingdoms.  Not  only  were 
French  and  English  mariners  exploring  the  more  northern  shores 
of  the  American  continent,  but  merchants  sailed  westward  to 
brave  Spanish  arrogance,  and  perhaps  to  compel  a  trade  with  the 
white  settlers.  As  early  as  1527,  an  English  vessel  appeared  in  the 

^  Dahlgren,  op.  cit.,  pp.  83  f.  See  also  the  instructions  of  Louis  XIV  to  the 
Comte  d'Estrees,  April  i,  1680,  printed  by  Margry.  The  French  admiral  was  to 
visit  all  the  Spanish  ports  in  the  West  Indies,  especially  Cartagena  and  San  Do- 
mingo; and  to  be  always  informed  of  the  situation  and  advantages  of  these  ports, 
and  of  the  facilities  and  difficulties  to  be  met  in  case  of  attack  upon  them;  so  that 
the  Spaniards  might  realize  that  if  they  failed  to  do  justice  to  the  French  mer- 
chants on  the  return  of  the  galleons.  His  Majesty  was  always  ready  to  force  them 
to  do  so,  either  by  attacking  these  galleons,  or  by  capturing  one  of  their  West 
Indian  ports. 


1 1 6  TRADE  AND  NA  VIGA  TION 

neighborhood  of  Hispaniola  and  Porto  Rico,  and  three  years  later 
WiUiam  Hawkins,  father  of  the  more  famous  John  Hawkins, 
sailed  to  Brazil  from  the  coast  of  Guinea  to  trafl&c  with  the  natives. 
These  were  rather  isolated  English  voyages,  for  not  till  the  second 
half  of  the  century  did  John  Hawkins,  Drake,  Winter,  KnoUys, 
CKfford,  and  the  rest  make  a  practice  of  resorting  to  the  Spanish 
Indies ;  and  then  they  came  rather  as  privateers  than  as  peaceful 
traders.  But  French,  and  especially  Portuguese,  interlopers  were 
already  busy  in  the  time  of  Charles  V. 

The  greater  strictness  toward  foreigners  initiated  by  Philip  II 
was  soon  reflected  in  threats  and  in  legislation  directed  against 
these  intruders.  A  cedula  of  November,  1560,  informed  royal 
officials  in  Cuba  that  several  vessels  had  set  out  from  France  with 
cloths  to  be  sold  in  America,  and  that  the  Crown  had  information 
of  ships  sailing  from  other  regions  on  a  similar  errand. ^  In  1563 
the  king  complained  to  the  audiencia  of  San  Domingo  because 
cargoes  from  Portugal  and  other  foreign  countries  were  received 
in  Hispaniola  and  elsewhere  in  the  West  Indies,  and  permitted  by 
the  judges  to  be  exchanged  for  gold,  silver,  and  other  colonial 
products.  The  vessels  sometimes  pretended  that  they  were  boimd 
for  Brazil,  and  driven  by  storm  into  the  Caribbean.  The  changed 
attitude  of  the  Spanish  government  John  Hawkins  discovered  to 
his  cost  on  his  first  slaver's  voyage  in  1562-63.  He  disposed  of 
two  thirds  of  his  shipload  of  300  blacks  to  the  colonists  at  San 
Domingo,  and  as  neither  they  nor  Hawkins  anticipated  any  seri- 
ous displeasure  on  the  part  of  the  Crown,  the  remaining  106 
slaves  were  left  as  a  deposit  with  the  authorities  of  the  island. 
Hawkins  invested  the  proceeds  in  hides,  half  of  which  he  sent  in 
Spanish  bottoms  to  Cadiz  in  the  care  of  his  partner,  Thomas 
Hampton,  while  he  returned  with  the  rest  to  England.  Philip, 
however,  did  not  for  a  moment  tolerate  this  intrusion  of  the  Eng- 
lish upon  his  preserves.  On  Hampton's  arrival  in  Spain,  his  cargo 
was  confiscated,  and  he  himself  narrowly  escaped  the  Inquisition. 
The  slaves  left  in  Hispaniola  were  forfeited,  and  Hawkins,  though 
he  "  cursed,  threatened  and  implored,"  could  not  obtain  a 
farthing  for  his  lost  hides  and  negroes. 

^  Encinas,  i,  p.  446. 


EMIGRATION  AND  THE  FOREIGN  INTERLOPER       II7 

The  region  of  the  Rio  de  la  Plata,  far  from  the  beaten  paths  of 
trans-Atlantic  commerce,  became  one  of  the  favorite  haunts  of  the 
interloper.  The  governor  of  Buenos  Aires,  in  a  letter  to  the  king 
in  1599,  gives  an  illuminating  account  of  the  appearance  in  the 
river  of  what  was  apparently  a  Dutch  merchantman  from  Am- 
sterdam armed  with  twenty  guns.  The  governor  thought  that  the 
vessel  was  bound  for  Peru,  and  had  put  in  for  provisions.  It  was 
in  fact  one  of  a  fleet  of  five  which  had  sailed  in  June,  1598,  from 
Holland  for  the  Pacific  coast  of  South  America.  Its  captain 
sought  leave  to  exchange  some  merchandise  for  products  of  the 
country.  But  the  Spaniard,  in  view  of  the  scarcity  in  the  colony, 
and  in  spite  of  royal  orders  that  no  ship  be  admitted  except  from 
Seville,  urged  that  the  entire  cargo  be  put  ashore  at  once,  after 
which,  and  the  payment  of  customs,  traffic  might  begin.  As  the 
Dutchman  insisted  that  the  operation  be  carried  out  gradually, 
he  was  taken  prisoner  with  eight  of  his  crew.  After  a  month  and  a 
half  of  negotiation  with  those  still  on  board  the  ship,  and  of  vain 
strategems  on  the  part  of  the  colonists  to  take  it  by  assault,  the 
vessel  sailed  away  with  all  of  its  cargo,  abandoning  the  captain 
and  his  companions  to  the  Spaniards.^ 

It  is  said  that  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  as 
many  as  200  ships  sailed  each  year  from  Portugal  with  cargoes  of 
silks,  cloths,  and  woolens  intended  for  the  Pacific  provinces  of 
Spanish  America.  The  Portuguese  secured  these  articles  from 
English,  Flemish  or  French  looms,  laded  them  at  Oporto  or  Lis- 
bon, ran  the  vessels  to  Brazil  and  up  the  Rio  de  la  Plata  as  far  as 
navigation  permitted,  and  then  transported  the  goods  overland 
through  what  are  no^  the  Argentine  and  Bolivia  into  Chile,  Peru, 
and  even  as  far  as  Lima.^  Spanish  merchants  in  Peru  kept  agents 
in  Brazil  as  well  as  at  Seville,  and  so  many  Portuguese,  most  of 
them  converted  Jews,  found  their  way  to  Lima  that  in  1636  they 
were  said  to  control  the  retail  trade  of  the  city.^  As  a  natural 
corollary,  the  route  through  Buenos  Aires  and  Brazil  became  one 
of  the  principal  channels  for  the  fraudulent  export  of  the  precious 

*  Madero,  Historia  del  Puerto  de  Bicenos  Aires,  i,  pp.  298  f. 

*  Weiss,  L'Espagne  depuis  Philippe  II  jusqu'aux  Bourbons,  ii,  p.  226. 

'  Medina,  Inquisicion  en  Chile,  ii,  pp.  96  ff.;  Lea,  Inquisition  in  the  Spanish 
Dependencies,  pp.  425  ff. 


1 1 8  TRADE  AND  NA  VIGA  TION 

metals.  Repeatedly  in  the  course  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the 
Suprema  urged  the  creation  of  a  tribunal  of  the  Inquisition  at 
Buenos  Aires,  to  keep  out  the  heretic  trader;  and  in  1663  ^  royal 
audiencia  was  established  on  the  Rio  de  la  Plata,  in  the  hope  of 
restraining  this  illicit  traffic,  but  with  no  visible  success,  for  it  was 
abolished  a  decade  later. 

The  possession  of  asientos  by  foreigners  for  the  supply  of  ne- 
groes to  the  Spanish  colonies  also  facilitated  contraband  trade. 
For,  given  the  privilege  of  entering  American  ports  with  shiploads 
of  blacks  from  Africa,  the  asentistas  often  found  opportunity  for 
introducing  merchandise  as  well,  and  generally  without  the  least 
obstacle.  It  was  a  precedent  which  the  English  were  not  slow  to 
follow  when  they  secured  the  privilege  of  the  Asiento  at  Utrecht 
in  1713. 

The  second  quarter  of  the  seventeenth  century  opened  a  new 
era,  moreover,  in  the  history  of  the  West  Indies.  Before  that  time, 
French,  English,  and  Dutch  had  resorted  to  tropical  America  as 
corsairs  or  as  merchant  interlopers  from  Europe.  They  often 
combined  the  two  callings.  From  1625  onward,  they  came  as  per- 
manent colonizers.  They  established  themselves  on  most  of  the 
smaller  islands,  which  had  been  wholly  neglected  by  the  Spaniards 
—  Barbadoes,  St.  Eatts,  Martinique,  Curag5^  etc.  —  forming 
centres  of  trade  and  population  in  the  very  heart  of  the  Spanish 
seas.  These  islands,  "  easy  to  settle,  easy  to  depopulate  and  to 
repeople,  attractive  not  only  on  account  of  their  own  wealth,  but 
also  as  a  starting-point  for  the  vast  and  rich  continent  off  which 
they  lie,"  were  indeed  to  become  the  pawns  in  a  game  of  trade  and 
diplomacy  which  continued  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  years.  And 
from  them  the  foreigner  prepared  to  capture  the  commerce  of  the 
Caribbean. 

In  this  region,  the  ubiquitous  Dutch  trader  was  especially  in 
evidence.  With  headquarters  on  the  tiny,  desert  island  of  Cura- 
50a,  close  to  the  South  American  coast,  he  trafficked  with  im- 
punity with  all  the  Venezuela  region,  and  played  the  role  of  carrier 
between  the  Spanish  colonies  and  English  and  French  settlements 
in  the  Lesser  Antilles.  In  1600  the  governor  of  Cumana  had  sug- 
gested to  the  king,  as  a  means  of  keeping  Dutch  vessels  from  the 


EMIGRATION  AND  THE  FOREIGN  INTERLOPER       II9 

neighboring  salt  pans  of  Araya,  the  ingenious  scheme  of  poisoning 
the  salt.  The  advice,  it  seems,  was  not  followed,  but  a  few  years 
later,  in  1605,  a  Spanish  armada  of  fourteen  galleons  surprised 
and  burnt  nineteen  Dutch  ships  found  loading  salt,  and  murdered 
most  of  the  prisoners.  To  Rio  de  la  Hacha,  Maracaibo  and  La 
Guayra  the  Hollanders  brought  cloth  and  negroes,  in  exchange  for 
silver  reals,  gold  dust,  emeralds,  and  pearls.  They  even  had  a 
settlement,  with  a  Protestant  church,  on  Spanish  ground  near 
Puerto  Cabello.  They  virtually  monopolized  the  trade  in  cocoa 
and  tobacco,  so  that,  until  the  erection  of  the  Caracas  Company 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  nearly  all  the  cocoa  consumed  in  Spain 
passed  through  their  hands,  though  grown  in  Spanish  possessions. 
And  the  Spaniards  paid  from  50  to  60  per  cent  more  for  this  com- 
modity than  if  it  had  been  imported  in  their  own  vessels.^  Alvarez 
Osorio  declared  that  all  the  foreign  nations  together  by  this 
clandestine  trade  in  the  West  Indies  secured  six  times  as  much  of 
the  products  of  Spanish  America  as  returned  on  the  Seville  fleets. 
For  a  few  years  after  the  settlement  of  the  Lesser  Antilles,  the 
Spaniards,  who  were  then  at  war  with  most  of  their  neighbors, 
made  scattered  and  ineffectual  efforts  to  dislodge  the  intruders. 
Usually  the  armed  galleons  were  detailed,  between  the  arrival 
and  departure  of  the  flotas  in  the  West  Lidies,  to  attack  one  or 
other  of  the  islands.  Thus  on  September  17,1629,  just  before  the 
conclusion  of  peace  with  Charles  I,  D.  Fadrique  de  Toledo,  ac- 
companying the  combined  fleets  of  that  year  with  an  unusually 
powerful  convoy,  appeared  suddenly  at  the  English  island  of 
Nevis,  seized  eight  small  vessels  in  the  roadstead,  destroyed  the 
fort,  burnt  the  tobacco  warehouses,  and  drove  the  few  defenders 
into  the  woods.  On  the  following  day  he  dropped  anchor  before 
St.  Kitts,  and  captured  or  scattered  the  English  and  French 
inhabitants  there.  The  French  temporarily  evacuated  the  island 
and  sailed  for  Antigua;  but  of  the  EngUsh  some  550  were  carried 
to  Cartagena  and  Havana  and  thence  shipped  to  England,  and  all 
the  rest  fled  to  the  mountains  and  woods.^  Within  three  months, 

*  B.  M,,  Add.  Mss.  13,987,  fol.  205. 

'  Caletidar  of  State  Papers,  colonial  series,  i,  pp.  102-119;    Fernandez  Dure, 
Armada  Espanola,  iv,  p.  109;  B.  M.,  Add.  Mss.  13,964,  fol.  296. 


I20  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

however,  the  settlers  had  returned  and  reestablished  the  colony. 
A  similar  raid  was  undertaken  in  the  summer  of  1633  by  the  New 
Spain  fleet,  which  after  a  week's  siege  and  bombardment  captured 
the  Dutch  stronghold  on  St.  Martin,  and  left  in  charge  a  Spanish 
garrison  of  250  men.  According  to  the  naval  historian,  Fernandez 
Duro,  there  were  seventeen  galleons  in  Toledo's  armament  and 
twenty-four  in  that  of  1633;  which  would  seem  to  indicate  a 
healthy  respect  for  the  puny  settlements  against  which  they  were 
directed. 

Old  Providence  and  the  adjacent  Henrietta,  situated  close  to 
the  Mosquito  coast,  were  peculiarly  exposed  to  Spanish  attack; 
while  near  the  north  shore  of  Hispaniola  the  island  of  Tortuga, 
colonized  by  the  same  English  company,  suffered  repeatedly  from 
the  assaults  of  its  hostile  neighbor.  In  consequence  of  an  unsuc- 
cessful attack  upon  Providence  in  July,  1635,  the  Company 
obtained  from  the  English  king  the  liberty  "  to  right  themselves  " 
by  making  reprisals,  and  thereafter  Philip  IV  was  all  the  more 
intent  upon  destroying  the  plantation.  In  the  early  summer  of 
1641,  the  general  of  the  galleons,  D.  Francisco  Diaz  Pimienta, 
with  twelve  sail  and  2000  men,  fell  upon  the  colony,  razed  the 
forts  and  carried  off  all  the  English,  about  770  in  number,  together 
with  forty  cannon  and  half  a  million  of  plunder.^  It  was  just  ten 
years  later  that  a  force  of  800  men  from  Porto  Rico  invaded  Santa 
Cruz,  killed  the  English  governor  and  more  than  100  settlers, 
seized  two  ships  in  the  harbor  and  pillaged  and  burnt  most  of  the 
plantations.  The  rest  of  the  inhabitants  escaped  to  the  woods,  and 
after  the  departure  of  the  Spaniards  deserted  the  colony  for  St. 
Kitts  and  other  islands.^ 

In  the  second  half  of  the  century,  after  the  English  were  estab- 
lished upon  Jamaica,  although  schemes  of  aggression  were  oc- 
casionally discussed  in  the  India  Council,  the  Spanish  power  was 
too  weak,  and  its  foes  too  firmly  rooted  in  the  Caribbean,  to  make 
such  efforts  practicable.  The  Council,  without  doubt,  so  far  as  it 
was  able,  saw  jealously  to  the  enforcement  of  the  laws.  The 
president  of  San  Domingo,  D.  Felix  de  Cunega,  the  governors  of 

1  B.  M.,  Add.  Mss.  36,323,  no.  10;  Fernandez  Duro,  op.  ciL,  iv,  p.  339. 
'  Rawlinson  Mss.  (Bodleian  Library,  Oxford),  A31,  fol.  121;  A3 2,  fol.  297. 


EMIGRATION  AND  THE  FOREIGN  INTERLOPER       121 

Buenos  Aires,  Cartagena,  and  Cuba,  were  removed  for  admitting 
Dutch  and  other  traders  from  the  northern  nations  into  their 
ports.  Yet  contraband  trade  was  more  flourishing  than  ever, 
and  in  1662  the  galleons,  after  an  interruption  of  two  years,  still 
found  their  market  so  well  provided  with  merchandise  that  they 
were  forced  to  return  without  disposing  of  a  great  part  of  their 
cargoes.^ 

The  French  Jesuit,  Labat,  who  visited  the  West  Indies  at  the 
close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  has  left  us  an  account  of  the 
methods  adopted  by  the  interloper  in  his  day,  methods  doubtless 
in  vogue  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  earlier.  When  a  vessel 
wished  to  enter  an  American  port  to  trade,  the  captain  sent  a 
polite  note  to  the  governor  accompanied  by  a  considerable  gift, 
alleging  that  provisions  had  nm  low,  or  that  the  ship  had  spnmg 
a  leak  or  lost  a  mast.  He  usually  obtained  permission  to  come  in, 
unload  and  put  the  ship  in  a  seaworthy  condition.  All  the  formali- 
ties were  minutely  observed.  The  cargo  was  shut  up  in  a  store- 
house, and  the  doors  sealed.  But  there  was  always  found  another 
door  imsealed,  and  through  this  goods  were  abstracted  during  the 
night,  and  coin,  hides,  cocoa,  or  bars  of  gold  or  silver  substituted. 
When  the  vessel  was  repaired  to  the  captain's  satisfaction,  it  was 
reloaded  and  sailed  away. 

There  was  also  along  the  shores  of  the  Caribbean  a  less  elab- 
orate commerce  called  "  sloop-trade  ";  for  it  was  generally  man- 
aged by  smaller  boats,  which  were  able  to  negotiate  the  reefs  and 
shoals  and  ran  up  the  rivers  and  creeks.  They  hovered  near  some 
secluded  spot,  and  informed  the  inhabitants  of  their  presence  by 
firing  a  shot  from  a  cannon.  Often  a  larger  ship  was  concealed 
outside,  behind  a  headland,  and  made  its  trade  by  means  of  the 
smaller  craft.  The  inhabitants,  usually  in  disguise,  came  off  in 
canoes  by  night.  The  interlopers,  however,  were  always  on  their 
guard  against  these  visitors,  and  admitted  only  a  few  at  a  time; 
for  if  the  Spaniards  found  that  they  outnumbered  the  crew,  and 
a  favorable  opportimity  presented,  they  were  quite  ready  to 
attempt  the  vessel.^ 

*  A.  de  I.,  153.  6.  19. 

'  Haring,  The  Buccaneers  in  the  West  Indies  in  the  Seventeenth  Century,  pp.  26  f. 


122  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

A  jflood  of  restrictions,  a  jealous  monopoly,  on  the  one  hand  — 
on  the  other,  a  flourishing  contraband  trade  of  outsiders,  aliens, 
either  by  way  of  Seville  and  Cadiz,  or  directly  with  ports  in  the 
colonies  —  such  is  the  story  of  Spanish- American  commerce  in  the 
sixteenth  and  the  seventeenth  centuries.  The  Crown  of  Castile 
sought  to  extend  Spanish  power,  and  monopoUze  all  the  treasure 
of  the  Indies,  by  means  of  a  rigid  and  complicated  commercial 
system.  Yet  in  the  end,  it  saw  the  trade  of  the  New  World  pass 
into  the  hands  of  its  rivals,  its  marine  reduced  to  a  shadow  of  its 
former  strength,  crews  and  vessels  supplied  by  merchants  from 
foreign  lands,  and  its  riches  diverted  at  their  very  source. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  SPANISH  MONOPOLY 

Although  the  tendency  to  an  exclusive  and  restrictive  organiza- 
tion of  colonial  trade  appeared  so  early  and  continued  so  persist- 
ently in  Spain,  there  was  little  systematic  interference  with 
American  industry  such  as  happened  in  the  dependencies  of  most 
European  peoples  in  the  mercantilist  era.  Foreigners  were  barred 
with  fair  consistency,  and  for  what  were  in  great  measure  eco- 
nomic reasons.  To  reserve  what  grew  to  be  the  magnificent  profits 
of  this  traffic  to  the  king  or  to  his  subjects,  and  above  all  to  pre- 
vent the  leakage  of  American  gold  and  silver  into  foreign  coun- 
tries, were  clearly  among  the  principal  motives  of  the  Crown. 
But  the  metropolis,  while  maintaining  its  privilege  of  alone  sup- 
pl3dng  European  commodities,  did  not  insist  that  the  colonists 
take  these  commodities  in  preference  to  products  of  their  own 
manufacture.  We  find  some  prohibitions,  but  we  also  fijid  the  sov- 
ereigns ready  to  encourage  and  protect  industrial  and  agricultural 
activities. 

The  attitude  of  the  government  was,  to  be  sure,  excessively 
paternalistic.  It  gave,  and  it  took  away,  what  seem  today  the 
most  obvious  rights  of  the  subject.  Humboldt  somewhere  observes 
that  the  Spanish  rulers,  in  assuming  the  title  of  Kings  of  the  In- 
dies, regarded  these  distant  possessions  as  the  private  appanage 
of  the  Crown  of  Castile,  rather  than  as  colonies  in  the  sense 
attached  to  that  word  by  other  nations.  This  observation  is  con- 
firmed by  all  the  American  legislation  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella. 
The  royal  absolutism  which  they  did  so  much  to  create  in  the 
Spanish  peninsula  found  in  the  western  hemisphere  a  field  for 
complete  and  logical  self-expression,  unhampered  by  any  of  the 
traditions  and  customs  of  older  commimities.  The  fixing  of  prices, 
the  ferry  charge  on  the  river  at  San  Domingo,  the  right  to  own 
fishing  boats,  the  farming  of  monopolies,  the  providing  of  orna- 
ments for  the  churches,  these  and  coimtless  similar  matters  re- 


124  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

mained  with  the  Crown  in  Spain  for  decision.  In  the  instructions 
to  the  governor  of  Hispaniola,  dated  March  20, 1503,  the  colonists 
are  given  permission  to  import  from  Spain  cattle  and  foodstuffs 
necessary  for  their  subsistence,  but  not  for  purposes  of  trade;  and 
they  are  specifically  forbidden  to  introduce  wine,  clothing,  shoes 
and  hardware,  a  monopoly  of  which  is  reserved  to  the  Crown. 
A  decree  of  151 1  conferred  upon  the  settlers  of  Porto  Rico  the 
right  to  trade  with  their  immediate  neighbor,  Hispaniola,  and 
with  the  home-coimtry;  and  another  two  years  later  conceded  to 
Hispaniola  a  similar  privilege  with  the  new  settlements  on  the 
isthmus  of  Darien.  In  15 16  the  Hieronymite  fathers,  entrusted  for 
the  moment  with  the  government  of  the  Indies,  received  orders  to 
allow  the  inhabitants  of  Cuba  to  build  and  own  vessels  for  trade 
with  other  islands.  An  edict  of  Charles  V,  in  1545,  directed  co- 
lonial governors  to  encourage  the  natives  to  raise  hemp  and  flax. 
But  later  their  cultivation  was  in  certain  provinces  forbidden, 
while  the  manufacture  of  silk,  cotton,  and  woolen  textiles  was 
permitted  in  Peru  and  New  Spain.  These  are  a  few  of  many 
instances  of  paternal  interference  and  control;  but  they  furnish 
no  evidence  of  the  systematic  application  of  mercantilist  ideas. 

The  interest  of  Isabella  and  her  immediate  successors  in  the 
agricultural  development  of  the  new  lands  has  often  been  dwelt 
upon.  They  introduced  from  Europe  and  the  Canaries  the  domes- 
tic animals,  cereals,  vegetables,  and  fruits  which  flourished  in  the 
temperate  regions  of  the  upper  plateaus;  and  also  tropical  and 
sub-tropical  plants  belonging  to  the  moister  and  hotter  lowlands, 
such  as  the  orange,  sugar  cane  (and  later),  coffee  and  rice.  All 
these  added  vastly  to  the  agricultural  possibilities  of  the  young 
colonies,  while  the  imported  animals  —  cattle,  swine,  horses,  and 
sheep  —  increased  with  extraordinary  rapidity,  and  often  ran 
wild  over  what  were  formerly  grassy  wastes.  A  considerable  num- 
ber of  plants  cultivated  by  the  indigenes  —  cocoa,  cotton,  paprika, 
maize  —  were  also  taken  over  by  the  Spaniards,  and  produced  in 
such  quantities  as  to  become,  next  to  sugar,  leather,  and  woods, 
the  most  important  articles  of  export. 

The  government  of  Charles  V  was  deeply  concerned  about  the 
welfare  of  the  larger  West  Indian  Islands,  Cuba,  Hispaniola, 


THE  SPANISH  MONOPOLY  1 25 

Jamaica  and  Porto  Rico ;  for,  as  already  related,  with  the  destruc- 
tion of  native  labor  and  the  lure  of  richer  regions  subdued  on  the 
continent,  they  were  declining  rapidly  in  population  and  wealth. 
The  growing  of  sugar  cane  was  especially  fostered,  and  workmen 
were  sent  over  from  the  Canaries  skilled  in  the  construction  of 
machinery  for  grinding  the  cane.^  Repeated  attempts  were  made 
early  in  the  century  to  acclimatize  wheat,  though  without  success. 
In  1520  materials  needed  in  the  construction  of  sugar  works  were 
excused  from  the  payment  of  import  duty;  nine  years  later,  such 
works  on  Hispaniola  were  exempted  from  seizure  for  debt;  and  in 
1 53 1  the  whole  of  the  royal  income  from  Cuba  was  devoted  to  the 
purchase  of  negroes  to  be  distributed  among  the  cultivators  of  the 
island  on  long-term  payments.^  Frequently  in  later  years,  the  rate 
of  the  almojarifazgo  or  of  the  averia  was  reduced  on  commodities 
exported  by  the  islanders  to  Spain. 

The  Spanish  Crown,  moreover,  did  more  than  foster  the  pro- 
duction of  raw  materials  not  competing  with  metropolitan  indus- 
tries, or  primarily  necessary  for  the  well-being  of  the  colonies.  It 
also,  at  least  in  the  time  of  Charles  V,  permitted  the  growth  of  in- 
dustries which  ranked  among  the  most  important  of  the  home 
country.  Ferdinand  in  1503,  while  contemplating  a  royal  mo- 
nopoly of  American  trade,  had  forbidden  the  production  of  wine 
on  Hispaniola.  But  in  15 19  the  Casa  de  Contratacion  was  in- 
structed to  send  with  every  ship  sailing  for  the  island  a  number  of 
vines  to  be  planted  there.^  And  in  Peru,  after  the  imposition  of 

1  Sugar  cane,  perhaps  the  most  valuable  agricultural  product  of  Spanish  America 
in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  was  carried  from  the  Canaries  to  the 
New  Worid  by  Columbus  on  his  second  voyage.  According  to  Las  Casas,  the  first 
attempt  at  making  sugar  on  Hispaniola  was  in  1505  or  1506,  while  the  historian 
Oviedo  claims  to  have  taken  the  first  sample  to  Spain  some  ten  years  later.  The 
planting  of  cane  was  begun  on  a  large  scale  in  Hispaniola  about  1520,  and  within 
fifteen  years  more  than  thirty  sugar  works  were  set  up.  From  Hispaniola  it  was 
carried  to  Cuba  and  the  mainland,  but  the  industry  in  Cuba  was  not  on  its  feet  for 
another  hundred  years,  and  Hispaniola  remained  for  some  time  the  principal  source 
of  the  West  Indian  supply.  G6mara,  writing  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
says  that  Mexico  was  already  producing  so  much  sugar  that  it  was  exported  from 
Vera  Cruz  and  Acapulco  to  Spain  and  Peru. 

'  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  iv,  p.  196;  A.  de  I.,  Patr.  2.  6.  i,  ramo  8;  American 
Historical  Review,  xxi,  p.  755. 

'  A.  de  I.,  139.  I.  6,  lib.  8,  fol.  138. 


126  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

almojarifazgo  at  Seville,  and  the  consequent  increase  in  prices,  the 
cultivation  of  the  grape  and  olive  was  taken  up  by  the  colonists, 
for  many  years  without  governmental  hindrance.  By  Philip  II 
the  viceroy,  D.  Francisco  de  Toledo,  who  went  out  in  1569,  was 
secretly  instructed  to  prevent  the  further  planting  of  vines,  but  he 
did  little  or  nothing  to  that  end.  Near  the  close  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  and  in  after  years,  it  was  proposed  that  the  production 
of  Peruvian  wine  be  forbidden  altogether,  in  order  to  eliminate 
competition  with  that  brought  on  the  fleets  from  Europe.  The 
vineyards,  however,  had  been  planted  with  the  tacit  consent  of 
the  king,  and  to  destroy  them  would  have  entailed  infinite  hard- 
ship and  injustice.  Various  alternatives  were  suggested :  that  the 
Indians  be  permitted  to  use  wine  instead  of  chicha,  and  so  con- 
sume the  local  product;  that  all  Peruvian  wine  put  up  for  sale  be 
bought  by  the  royal  exchequer;  that  any  extension  of  the  indus- 
try be  prohibited  under  severe  penalties.^  This  last  was  always 
the  remedy  adopted.  In  1614  and  161 5  it  was  forbidden  to  export 
oil  or  wine  to  Panama  or  Guatemala,  regions  which  could  be  sup- 
plied from  Spain.  A  tax  of  2  per  cent  was  also  imposed  after  1595 
on  wine  produced  and  bottled  in  the  viceroyalty,  and  by  ordi- 
nances of  1 601  and  1609  the  use  of  forced  native  labor  was  forbid- 
den. Yet  vineyards  and  olive  plantations  continued  in  Peru,  and 
in  spite  of  reiterated  decrees,  increased  in  area  and  importance. 
The  manufacture  of  textiles  —  so  attentively  nurtured  in  Spain 
by  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  and  showing  such  promise  till  de- 
stroyed by  the  epileptic  policy  of  their  successors  —  was  more 
widely  developed  in  the  New  World  than  any  other  industry.  In 
October,  1537,  Martin  Cortes,  son  of  the  Conquistador,  entered 
into  an  agreement  with  the  viceroy  of  New  Spain,  in  consideration 
of  certain  privileges,  to  plant  within  fifteen  years  100,000  mul- 
berry trees  in  the  districts  of  Guajocingo,  Cholula,  and  Tlascala, 
for  the  production  of  silk.^  The  licentiate  Laisa,  deputy  from  the 
city  of  Mexico,  reported  to  the  Council  of  the  Indies  in  1543  that 
there  were  already  in  Mexico  more  than  forty  establishments  for 

*  B.  M.,  Add.  Mss.  13,975,  fol.  219;  Colecc.  de  Espana,  lii,  p.  565;  Sol6rzano, 
Polit.  Ind.y  lib.  ii,  cap.  9. 

*  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xii,  p.  563. 


THE  SPANISH  MONOPOLY  IZJ 

the  manufacture  of  velvets,  and  that  the  city,  hoping  to  foster  so 
useful  an  industry,  had  issued  ordinances  to  insure  the  quality  and 
regularity  of  their  product.^  And  in  1548  a  royal  cedula  specifi- 
cally authorized  the  inhabitants  of  Puebla  de  los  Angeles  to  set  up 
factories  for  the  making  of  silks,  without  restriction  or  impedi- 
ment of  any  sort.^  Henry  Hawks,  an  Englishman  who  lived  five 
years  in  New  Spain,  says  in  1572  that  the  country  not  only  manu- 
factured all  sorts  of  silks  —  taffetas,  satins  and  velvets  —  as  good 
in  quality  as  those  of  Spain,  except  that  the  colors  were  less  per- 
fect; but  it  was  well  supplied  with  wool,  and  produced  enough 
cloth  to  clothe  all  the  common  people  and  export  to  Peru.  Hats 
also  were  made  in  the  colony,  better  and  cheaper  than  in  Spain, 
and  exported  to  the  southern  viceroyalty.^  The  cloth  industry  was 
officially  recognized  in  Peru  by  a  decree  of  September,  1565,  which 
provided  that "  en  la  fabrica  de  los  panos  se  guarden  en  las  Indias 
las  leyes  y  pragmaticas  de  estos  reinos  de  Castilla."  ^  And  the 
present-day  republics  of  Peru  and  Ecuador  still  dispute  the 
distinction  of  having  had  within  their  territories  the  first  cloth 
manufactory  of  South  America.  The  textiles  of  the  southern 
viceroyalty  were  mostly  woolens. 

Till  1569  the  Spanish  government  apparently  left  this  nascent 
industry  altogether  alone.  But  again  with  the  coming  to  Peru  of 
Francisco  de  Toledo,  there  was  a  change.  Manufactures  in  the 
peninsula  were  palpably  decaying,  and  petitions  for  assistance 
were  presented  by  the  deputies  in  the  Cortes.  Philip  II  undertook 
to  remedy  the  situation  by  what  he  doubtless  considered  the  most 
efficacious  means  at  his  disposal.  Among  the  secret  instructions 
to  Toledo  was  one  to  close  the  textile  factories.^  The  new  gover- 
nor, however,  on  arrival  in  Peru,  testified  that  he  found  the  de- 
mand of  the  country  for  such  goods  far  greater  than  the  supply 
from  Spain,  since  no  fleet  had  been  dispatched  from  Europe  for 
three  years;  and  he  disregarded  his  orders.  He  published  a  code  of 

^  Cappa,  Estudios  criticos  acerca  de  la  dominacidn  espanola  en  AmSricaf  vii, 
p.  39- 

2  Recop.,  lib.  iv,  tit.  26,  ley  5. 

'  Hakluyt,  Navigations  (ed.  of  1904),  ix,  p.  378. 

*  Recop.,  lib.  iv,  tit.  26,  ley  3. 

'  Cappa,  op.  cit.,  vii,  p.  44. 


128  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

ordinances  to  stop  the  exploitation  of  Indian  workmen,  rules 
which  required  that  they  be  treated  more  nearly  Uke  free  subjects 
of  the  Crown,  and  the  wisdom  and  moderation  of  which  are  per- 
haps his  chief  title  to  remembrance.  But  the  entrepreneurs  re- 
mained free  to  manufacture  cloths  in  any  quantity  and  quality 
they  desired.  This  action  of  Philip  would  have  affected  only  the 
production  of  finer  cloths;  for  it  did  not  apply  to  establishments 
run  by  Indian  caciques  in  the  native  pueblos.  The  exception  was 
consistent  with  Spanish  interests,  as  only  the  better  qualities  were 
produced  in  Spain,  and  the  Indian  factories  supplied  to  the  pueb- 
los the  means  of  paying  the  royal  tribute.  But  it  seemed  to  favor 
the  natives  over  and  above  the  Spanish  and  Creole  manufacturers.' 

The  prohibition  was  renewed  in  the  instructions  to  the  viceroy, 
D.  Luis  de  Velasco,  in  1595,  though  in  somewhat  milder  form. 
Existing  factories  were  to  be  allowed  to  continue,  even  if  erected 
in  defiance  of  previous  orders.  But  no  new  ones  might  be  created, 
or  old  ones  enlarged  or  repaired,  without  first  consulting  the 
Crown.i  Nevertheless,  so  many  private  interests  were  bound  up 
with  the  welfare  of  this  industry,  and  its  extension  seemed  so  vital 
to  the  prosperity  of  the  Peruvians,  that  still  the  viceroys  dared 
not  interfere.  And  the  number  of  establishments  continued  to 
increase  till  toward  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

In  1601  a  decree  was  promulgated  forbidding  Spaniards  in  Peru 
to  employ  Indians  in  any  capacity  whatsoever  in  their  workshops.^ 
But  its  purpose  was  to  protect  the  native  rather  than  to  hamper 
the  manufacturer.  Many  stories  had  come  to  the  ears  of  the 
Council  of  flagrant  violations  of  Toledo's  ordinances,  and  the 
viceroys  themselves  complained  that  it  was  impossible  rigorously 
to  enforce  them,  or  prevent  the  exploitation  of  the  aborigines  by 
the  Peruvian  factory  owner.  The  latter,  by  the  new  law,  were 
restricted  to  the  use  of  negroes  and  half-breeds.  Mulattoes  and 
mestizos,  however,  regarded  themselves  as  of  superior  race  to  the 
indigenes,  and  their  connection  with  an  occupation  formerly  con- 
fined to  the  latter  as  a  personal  degradation.  The  manufacturers 
raised  a  storm  of  complaint  over  the  higher  wages  they  were 
forced  to  pay,  and  in  1609  the  cedula  was  revoked.  Twenty-five 
*  Cappa,  op.  cU.f  vii,  p.  66.  '  Ibid.,  p.  68. 


THE  SPANISH  MONOPOLY  1 29 

years  earlier,  in  1584,  a  memorial  to  the  king  had  asserted  that  the 
fleets,  owing  to  the  growth  of  the  wine  and  woolen  industries  in 
Peru,  had  already  lost  trade  representing  an  annual  return  of 
200,000  ducats  to  the  royal  exchequer.^ 

As  an  extreme  instance  of  eccentric  legislation,  may  be  men- 
tioned the  case  of  Caracas  tobacco.  In  June  of  1607  the  cultiva- 
tion of  tobacco  on  the  coast  of  Venezuela  was  interdicted  for  ten 
years;  not  because  it  was  an  article  grown  in  Spain,  or  not  to  be 
encouraged  in  America,  but  because  the  Dutch  were  accustomed 
to  rendezvous  there  and  engross  the  entire  crop.  At  that  time  the 
use  of  tobacco  was  much  more  general  in  the  northern  countries, 
England,  the  Lowlands,  and  Germany,  than  in  Spain;  and  in  1613 
the  Spanish  governors  of  Flanders,  the  Archdukes  Albert  and 
Isabel,  sought  the  concession  of  the  Venezuela  trade,  offering  to 
send  three  ships  each  year  and  supplant  the  intruders.^  But  the 
Castilian  Crown,  rather  than  permit  its  exclusivist  pretensions  to 
be  called  into  question,  preferred  to  destroy  altogether  an  indus- 
try on  which  the  prosperity  of  the  colony  chiefly  depended.  In 
this  particular  case,  the  result  was  disastrous.  The  Spaniard  was 
merely  cutting  off  his  nose  to  spite  his  face.  The  white  planters, 
having  no  other  means  of  subsistence  left  to  them,  deserted  the 
region,  while  the  wild  Indians  left  behind  still  cultivated  tobacco 
to  sell  to  the  ubiquitous  Dutchmen.^  In  1614  the  decree  ap- 
parently was  repealed. 

From  the  foregoing,  it  is  evident  that  Spanish  policy  toward 
colonial  industries  lacked  the  clearly  defined  outlines  one  asso- 
ciates with  the  mercantilist  ideas  of  that  age.  Indeed  it  is  difficult 
to  discover  any  characteristic  "  policy  "  at  all,  unless  it  be  one  of 
blind  opportunism.  Sometimes  the  government  put  obstacles  in 
the  way  of  American  industries,  presumably  to  favor  those  of  the 
metropolis,  but  the  measures  were  variable  and  arbitrary,  and 
often  of  little  effect.  Frequently  the  reasons  for  restriction  were 
local  or  transitory,  to  shield  the  natives  from  their  conscienceless 
masters,  or  to  destroy  the  profits  of  the  foreign  interloper. 

■^  Colecc.  de  Espana,  civ,  p.  278. 
'  A.  de  I.,  140.  3.  9. 
3  B.  M.,  Add.  Mss.  i3,975,  no.  47;  36,319,  nos.  20,  23;  36,320,  nos.  3,  5. 


k 


I30  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

Cappa  cities  a  petition  of  the  Cortes  of  Valladolid  in  1548  as 
indication  that  among  Spanish  manufacturers  at  that  time  there 
was  no  opposition  to  the  rise  of  competing  industries  in  the  Indies. 
The  petition  urged  that  it  would  be  to  the  interest  of  the  con- 
sumer in  Spain  that  the  colonies  supply  themselves  with  their 
own  manufactured  goods.^  The  deputies  were  attempting  to 
handle  a  situation  arising  out  of  the  increase  in  prices  during  the 
previous  decade.  They  not  only  suggested  prohibiting  the  export 
of  manufactures  to  America,  but  petitioned  the  Emperor  to  per- 
mit the  introduction  into  Spain  of  cheap  cloths  from  abroad. 
Certainly  such  action  revealed  little  appreciation  of  mercantihst 
theories.  The  government,  however,  acceded  to  these  naive  pro- 
posals, and  in  the  following  year,  to  remedy  further  the  scarcity, 
also  forbade  the  production  of  the  finer  qualities  in  Spain,  a  blow 
to  one  of  the  most  important  industries  in  the  kingdom.^ 

The  same  idiosyncrasies  crop  up  in  the  time  of  the  Philips.  In 
a  vain  effort  to  check  the  rising  cost  of  living,  Spanish  export 
trade  was  hampered,  and  the  manufactures  from  other  countries 
allowed  free  play.  The  articles  unlawful  for  export  included  gold 
and  silver,  it  is  true,  but  they  also  comprised  cereals,  cattle,  copper, 
and  textiles.  In  the  eighteenth  century,  under  the  more  enlight- 
ened regime  of  the  Bourbons,  mercantile  theories  doubtless  had 
more  weight  in  the  councils  of  the  government;  in  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth,  it  is  difficult  to  see  the  application  of  any 
intelligent  system. 

The  Spanish  Crown  may  be  said  to  have  kept  the  colonies,  in  an 
indirect  way,  peculiarly  in  a  state  of  dependence  upon  the  home 
country.  It  transferred  to  these  frontier  regions  the  aristocratic 
and  ecclesiastical  organization  of  a  much  older  and  more  sophis- 
ticated community.  The  land  was  divided  into  great  estates 
granted  to  the  families  of  conquistadores,  to  favorites  at  court,  or 
to  the  cathedrals  and  monasteries.  There  grew  up,  therefore,  on 
the  one  hand,  a  numerous  and  privileged  nobility,  which  congre- 
gated mostly  in  the  larger  towns,  and  set  the  rest  of  the  inhabi- 

1  Cappa,  op.  cit.,  vii,  p.  19. 

2  Bernays,  "  Zur  inneren  Entwicklung  Castiliens  unter  Karl  V."  {Deutsche 
Zeitschrift  fiir  Geschichtswissenschaft,  1889),  p.  412. 


THE  SPANISH  MONOPOLY  I3I 

tants  a  pernicious  example  of  luxury  and  idleness;  on  the  other, 
a  powerfully  endowed  church,  which,  while  it  did  some  splendid 
service  in  converting  the  Indians,  engrossed  much  of  the  land  in 
mortmain,  and  filled  the  New  World  with  thousands  of  parasitic, 
and  often  licentious,  friars.  As  early  as  1509,  a  pragmatic  had  to 
be  issued  to  the  colonists  on  Hispaniola,  prohibiting  expenditure 
for  silks,  and  other  extravagances  in  dress.  The  sumptuary  de- 
cree was  extended  in  15 13  to  Castilla  del  Oro,  the  first  region  on 
the  mainland  permanently  settled  by  white  men,  and  to  other 
provinces  as  they  were  added  to  Spain's  ultramarine  empire. 

The  Church  from  an  economic  point  of  view  was  especially 
oppressive.  From  the  year  1501  the  payment  of  tithes  was  re- 
quired in  all  the  colonies,  and  the  mode  of  collection  regulated  by 
law.i  All  products  of  the  soil,  as  well  as  cattle  and  sheep,  came 
within  the  scope  of  this  tax,  and  its  effect  must  have  been  very 
prejudicial  to  the  development  of  a  struggling  agricultural  society. 
The  estates  of  the  Church,  too,  soon  expanded  to  an  incredible 
degree.  In  a  pioneer  country,  where  lands  are  to  be  cleared  and 
reduced  to  cultivation,  comparatively  small  holdings  and  the 
stimulus  of  private  ownership  are  generally  needed  to  secure  the 
most  profitable  and  economical  use  of  the  soil.  If  estates  are 
large,  the  proprietor  can  obtain  ample  returns  from  a  careful 
tillage  of  a  relatively  small  part,  or  from  the  primitive  cultivation 
of  larger  areas.  There  is  Httle  incentive  to  improvements  in  agri- 
culture. Such  were  the  conditions  in  Spanish  America,  not  only 
on  the  ecclesiastical  estates,  but  also  on  those  of  the  great  landed 
families;  though  on  the  former  the  outlook  was  more  hopeless 
because  of  the  "  dead  hand  "  of  the  Church.  Land  was  tilled  with 
servile  or  semiservile  labor,  and  by  primitive  methods,  and  great 
areas  were  entirely  neglected.  In  1535  the  Crown  had  declared 
that  estates  in  New  Spain  might  be  bestowed  on  conquistadores 
and  other  early  settlers  only  with  the  proviso  that  they  were  never 
sold  to  a  church  or  monastery.  And  another  decree  of  the  same 
year  forbade  the  establishment  of  monasteries  except  with  the 
express  permission  of  the  king,  or  of  the  viceroy  in  his  name.^ 

^  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xxxiv,  p.  22;  2d  ser.,  v,  p.  23;  Encinas,  i,  pp.  179  f, 
^  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  x,  pp.  298,  302. 


132    x  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

But  while  the  Crown  took  these  early  precautions,  in  the  long  run 
it  showed  Uttle  disposition  to  restrain  the  clergy's  growing  wealth 
and  influence.  Philip  III,  in  a  letter  to  the  viceroy  of  Peru  in 
1620,  remarked  that  the  convents  in  Lima  covered  more  ground 
than  all  the  rest  of  the  city.  And  Humboldt,  when  he  visited 
Mexico  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  found  in 
some  of  the  provinces  as  much  as  80  per  cent  of  the  landed  prop- 
erty in  the  control  of  the  Church. ^ 

Furthermore,  the  men  who  came  to  subdue  and  colonize  the 
new  continent  were  frequently  of  a  type  little  suited  to  such  an 
endeavor.  Sober,  but  not  very  industrious,  distracted  for  genera- 
tions by  national  and  religious  conflict  from  work  in  the  fields,  the 
Spaniards  of  that  day  sought  in  the  Indies  occupations  more 
lucrative  or  less  laborious  than  farming  and  trade.  Although  dis- 
playing qualities  of  resistance  and  heroism,  they  too  often  ex- 
pected to  pursue  beyond  the  seas  a  life  free  from  exertion,  using 
native  labor  or  blacks  from  Africa  to  cultivate  the  ground  and 
work  the  mines  of  gold  and  silver.  Velasco  wrote,  about  1574: 

Los  espanoles  en  aquellas  provincias  serian  muchos  mas  de  los  que  son,  si 
se  diese  licencia  para  pasar  a  todos  los  que  la  quisiesen;  pero  comunamente 
se  han  inclinado  parar  destos  reynos  a  aquellos  los  hombres  enemigos  del 
trabajo,  y  de  animos  y  espiritus  levantados,  y  con  codicia  mas  de  enrique- 
cerse  brevemente  que  de  perpetuarse  en  la  tierra,  no  contentos  con  tener  en 
ella  segura  la  comida  y  el  vestido,  que  a  ninguno  en  aquellas  partes  les  puede 
faltar  con  una  mediana  diligencia  en  llegando  a  ellas,  siquiera  sean  oficiales 
6  labradores,  siquiera  no  lo  sean,  olvidados  de  si  se  alzan  a  mayores,  y  se 
andan  ociosos  y  vagamundos  por  la  tierra,  hechos  pretensores  de  oficios  y 
repartimientos.  .  .  .^ 

The  Indians  of  many  regions,  consequently,  instead  of  being  pro- 
tected and  civilized,  were  reduced  to  virtual  serfdom,  and  con- 
fined to  a  laborious  routine  for  which  they  had  neither  the  aptitude 
nor  the  strength.  The  government  at  home,  as  we  have  seen, 
sometimes  showed  interest  in  their  welfare,  but  it  was  too  distant 
to  interfere  effectively  in  their  behalf.  It  is,  in  fact,  very  doubtful 
if  the  mass  of  the  natives  were  much  better  off  after,  than  before, 
the  conquest.    They  lived  in  their  own  villages,  separated  from 

1  P.  P.  Leroy  Beaulieu,  De  la  colonisation  chez  les  peuples  modernes,  p.  22. 
*  Lopez  de  Velasco,  Geografia  y  descripcidn  universal  de  las  Indias,  p.  36. 


THE  SPANISH  MONOPOLY  1 33 

the  whites,  and  in  deepest  ignorance.  Of  the  blessings  of  Euro- 
pean civilization  they  had  scarcely  any  noteworthy  share.  Their 
lot  had  perhaps  been  slightly  ameliorated  by  the  introduction  of 
domestic  animals,  plants,  and  vegetables  from  the  east;  but  they 
also  received  many  diseases.  And  almost  all  of  their  ancient 
culture  was  gradually  lost.  Christianity  they  had  accepted, 
but  many  of  them  retained,  as  they  do  to-day,  heathen  beliefs 
and  practices  mingled  with  the  higher  religion.  In  the  rural 
districts,  therefore,  native  modes  of  building,  and  often  of  agri- 
culture too,  prevailed.  Only  houses  in  the  towns,  and  the  chief 
buildings  of  the  plantations  and  cloisters,  were  in  the  customary 
south-European  style.  The  cities  were  those  of  Spain,  the  coimtry 
retained  an  Indian  guise. 

Spaniards  and  Creoles  remained  the  real  supporters  of  industry 
and  commerce.  Yet  toward  them  the  government  exhibited  a 
chronic  fear  and  distrust  of  individual  initiative.  Self-reliance, 
independence  of  thought  and  action,  in  the  colonists  was  discour- 
aged, and  divisions  and  factions  fostered  among  them.  Progress 
in  scientific  knowledge  was  effectually  blocked  by  the  Church,  and 
American  presses  confined  their  attention  mostly  to  the  produc- 
tion of  catechisms,  martyrologies  and  books  of  pious  verse.  Vir- 
tually all  pubHc  matters,  great  or  small,  had  to  be  referred  to 
Spain  for  decision,  and  the  higher  administrative  posts,  under  the 
Hapsburgs  at  least,  were  universally  reserved  for  Spaniards  of 
European  birth. 

The  general  policy  of  the  Crown  in  Spanish  America,  therefore, 
and  the  character  of  the  colonists  themselves,  were  not  calculated 
to  the  conditions  of  a  new  and  unexploited  world.  The  white 
inhabitants  were  concentrated  in  cities,  and  as  emigration  was 
restricted  to  keep  the  colonies  free  from  the  contamination  of 
heresy  and  foreigners,  the  growth  of  population  was  slow.  The 
Indians  were  either  serfs  on  the  great  estates,  or  if  free,  Uved  by 
the  most  primitive  agriculture  mingled  with  hunting  and  fishing. 
Creole  agriculture,  in  spite  of  favorable  natural  conditions  and 
valuable  articles  of  production,  reached  no  very  high  stage  of  de- 
velopment. The  ancient  Indian  crafts  declined,  and  while  in  the 
cities  of  the  Spaniards  some  large  establishments  of  a  European 


134  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

type  arose,  most  of  the  manufactures  required  by  the  colonists 
came  from  Spain. 

Certain  classes  of  articles  were  from  the  first  forbidden  to  be 
carried  to  the  Indies.  Among  the  ordinances  drawn  up  for  the 
Casa  in  1504,  just  before  Isabella's  death,  there  is  one:  "  Que 
ninguno  pase  a  las  Indias  oro  ni  plata,  ni  monedas,  ni  caballos,  ni 
yeguas,  ni  esclavos,  ni  armas,  ni  guanines  .  .  ."  without  a  special 
license.*  The  rule  also  appears  in  a  set  of  instructions  delivered  in 
the  same  year  to  Nicolas  de  Ovando.^  The  interdiction  of  the 
export  of  precious  metals  from  Spain,  whether  as  plate,  coin  or 
bulHon,  was  a  constant  maxim  of  state  from  the  sixteenth  century 
to  the  eighteenth,  just  as  we  find  it  in  England  imder  the  Yorkists 
and  Tudors;  and  it  would  probably  have  been  enforced  against 
the  colonies  even  if  the  latter  had  not  discovered  so  abundant  a 
supply  in  their  own  mines.  Obedience  to  the  law  was  evidently 
difficult  to  enforce.  Merchants  and  emigrants  smuggled  jewelry 
and  plate  out  of  the  country,  in  spite  of  royal  pragmatics,  and  in 
the  sunomer  of  15 19  and  later,  proclamations  reiterated  the  pains 
and  penalties  so  incurred. 

The  introduction  of  slaves  into  America  was  doubtless  re- 
stricted for  reasons  at  first  largely  of  a  religious  character.  While 
a  few  bondmen  existed  in  Spain  —  Guinea  negroes  acquired  from 
the  Portuguese,  and  Moorish  captives  from  Africa  —  the  institu- 
tion of  slavery  was  not  yet  regarded  with  favor  by  the  Church; 
and  the  Catholic  Kings,  zealous  allies  of  the  Spanish  clergy,  saw 
no  good  reason  for  extending  it  to  their  new  provinces,  especially 
as  it  might  complicate  the  supreme  task  of  converting  and  civiliz- 
ing the  American  aborigines.  Even  after  such  considerations  were 
thrown  by  the  board,  the  export  of  blacks  remained  a  privilege 
reserved  to  favorites  of  the  Crown,  or  to  private  individuals  or 
companies  which  paid  a  handsome  royalty  on  every  negro  carried 
over.  The  government  continued  to  be  heedful,  however,  that 
slaves  of  Moorish  extraction,  or  "  de  levante,"  were  excluded, 
for  fear  of  perverting  the  religion  of  the  Christianized  Indians. 
"  Esclavos  de  levante  '*  were  those  bought  in  Sardinia  or  the 

*  Colecc,  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  v,  p.  94.  '  Ibid.,  ist  ser.,  xxxi,  p.  233. 


THE  SPANISH  MONOPOLY  1 35 

Balearics,  most  of  whom  were  either  Moorish  or  Jewish  half- 
breeds,  or  converted  to  the  Mohammedan  faith.^  The  revenues 
from  the  negro  trade  became  a  large  and  regular  source  of  in- 
come. In  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  30  ducats  per 
head  were  paid  to  the  Crown,  besides  a  tax  of  twenty  reals  called 
the  Aduanilla.  If  this  obligation  could  not  be  discharged  at  Se- 
ville, the  rate  was  40  ducats  and  thirty  reals  after  sale  in  the 
colonies.-  In  1665,  the  annuities  to  creditors  of  the  exchequer 
charged  upon  this  revenue  amounted  to  50,000,000  maravedis. 

The  early  rule  against  the  export  of  horses  and  asses  is  difficult 
to  understand,  unless  we  regard  it,  with  that  touching  firearms, 
as  a  precaution  against  the  possible  disorders  of  unruly  spirits  in 
the  raw  and  untamed  American  communities.  There  is  no  men- 
tion of  horses  or  arms  in  the  codified  ordinances  of  the  Casa 
printed  in  1552,  although  in  Veitia  Linaje's  time  arms,  and 
especially  pistols,  were  again  included  among  the  prohibited 
articles.^ 

A  decree  of  September,  1543,  forbade  the  introduction  into  the 
colonies  of  "  libros  de  romance  que  traten  de  materias  profanas  y 
fabulosas,  y  historias  fingidas."  It  left  little  room  for  anything 
except  books  of  a  moralistic  or  religious  complexion  —  "libros 
tocantes  a  la  religion  Cristiana  y  de  virtud,'^  to  quote  from  the 
ordinances  of  1552  —  and  augured  ill  for  the  literary  future  of 
Spanish  America.  No  work  relating  to  the  New  World  might  be 
printed  in  Spain,  or  sent  out  to  the  colonists,  without  preliminary 
examination  and  approval  by  the  Council  of  the  Indies.  If  unau- 
thorized books  were  printed  in  the  colonies,  they  must  be  collected 
and  shipped  to  Spain.  All  writings,  of  course,  had  to  have  the 
license  of  the  Holy  Inquisition.  A  cedula  of  January,  1585,  re- 
quired that  the  stewards  (provisores)  of  bishops  or  archbishops  of 

^  Antunez  y  Acevedo,  pp.  132  f .  By  a  decree  of  1563,  shipmasters  were  forbidden 
to  have  slaves  serving  in  any  capacity  on  board.  After  1572,  they  might  carry  two 
or  three  Guinea  blacks,  on  giving  50,000  maravedis  security  per  head  that  they 
would  be  brought  back  to  Spain.    Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  35,  par.  22. 

2  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  35,  par.  8. 

'  Ihid.,  lib.  ii,  cap.  16,  par.  10.  In  the  seventeenth  century,  iron  from  Flanders 
or  Germany,  whether  manufactured  or  in  bars,  was  forbidden  in  the  colonies,  in 
order  to  favor  the  iron  industry  of  the  Biscayan  provinces. 


136  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

maritime  cities  in  America  be  present  with  the  royal  officials  at 
the  inspection  of  ships,  to  see  that  they  brought  no  works  of  a 
heretical  tendency.  And  any  mariner  who  carried  prohibited 
articles  in  his  vessel  without  royal  license  incurred  a  fine  of 
50,000  maravedis.^ 

As  already  explained,  a  merchant,  to  engage  in  the  India  trade, 
had  to  be  of  Spanish  birth,  or  naturalized  and  domiciled  in  the 
peninsula.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  lines  were  drawn  much  more 
narrowly.  Traffic  with  America  became,  to  all  intents  and  pur- 
poses, the  monopoly  of  a  comparatively  few  commercial  houses  of 
Seville.  Not  only  was  export  confined  to  this  city,  and  to  its  sub- 
sidiary, Cadiz,  but  it  was  made  difficult  or  inconvenient  for  the 
small  trader  to  have  a  direct  part  in  it.  From  the  middle  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  no  one  might  cross  the  Atlantic  to  trade,  either 
on  his  own  account  or  as  factor  or  supercargo,  imless  he  had  laded 
for  the  voyage  merchandise  of  considerable  value.  At  first  prob- 
ably left  to  the  discretion  of  the  officers  of  the  Casa,  by  the  early 
years  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  minimum  had  been  definitely 
fixed  at  300,000  maravedis  in  silver,  as  appraised  for  the  payment 
of  customs.  After  1668  it  was  reduced  to  200,000.  But  the 
change  was  only  in  appearance,  for  members  of  the  Consulado, 
presumably  in  return  for  some  service  to  the  Crown,  had  secured^ 
the  privilege  of  declaring  only  two  thirds  of  the  value  of  their 
goods  at  the  aduana;  and  it  was  assumed  that  if  a  "  register  ''  of 
200,000  was  presented,  the  shipment  was  worth  at  least  300,000.^ 
The  original  object  of  such  a  rule  was  doubtless  to  prevent  the 
emigration  of  persons  who  represented  themselves  fraudulently 
as  exporting  merchants.  The  consequence  of  putting  it  on  a 
basis  of  capital  invested  was  practically  to  confine  trade  to  the 
wealthier  Andalusian  firms.  In  America,  too,  the  importing  busi- 
ness was  controlled  by  a  few  influential  houses,  which  kept  their 
factors  at  Vera  Cruz  and  Panama,  and  in  their  Consulados  at 
Lima  and  Mexico  City  enjoyed  the  same  favored  treatment  as 
their  correspondents  in  Seville. 

*  Encinas,  iv,  p.  135;  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  16,  par.  14,  15. 
'  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  29,  par.  10. 


THE  SPANISH  MONOPOLY  1 37 

It  was  obviously  to  the  interest  of  these  firms  to  act  in  concert, 
a  step  which  was  made  easier  by  the  creation  of  the  Consulado. 
Through  the  Consulado  they  could  control  the  character  and  size 
of  outbound  cargoes,  and  dictate  prices  at  will.  In  practice,  if  not 
in  theory,  they  resembled  the  exclusive  trading  companies  of  the 
same  period  in  England  and  Holland.  They  constituted  a  per- 
petual coalition  for  the  exploitation  of  the  public,  and  in  restraint 
of  trade.  The  effect  was  to  diminish  the  supply  of  European  goods 
in  America,  and  of  American  products  in  Europe.  The  colonies 
especially  suffered,  for  they  looked  to  Europe  not  only  for  articles 
of  immediate  consumption,  but  also  for  the  means  of  production 
such  as  iron  and  steel.  They  were  kept  chronically  understocked, 
and  the  exorbitant  prices  they  had  to  pay  for  all  foreign  commodi- 
ties, even  in  the  eighteenth  and  early  nineteenth  centuries,  was 
one  of  the  most  serious  obstacles  to  growth  in  manufactures,  in 
population  and  in  general  well-being. 

The  decisions  of  the  government  during  the  Hapsburg  regime 
generally  tended  to  the  strengthening  of  this  monopoly,  and  to  the 
maintenance  of  a  close  alliance  between  the  Crown  and  the  mer- 
chant. In  June,  1530,  Charles  V  issued  an  order  allowing  Spanish 
merchants  in  New  Spain  to  sell  goods  they  imported  at  any. price 
the  market  would  permit,  and  forbidding  the  colonial  authorities 
to  impose  a  fixed  schedule  or  rate.^  Some  twenty-five  years  later, 
the  Mexican  audiencia  urged  that  the  prohibition  be  removed, 
especially  as  affecting  foodstuffs,  the  manipulation  of  which  was 
very  grievous  to  the  inhabitants.  But  Philip  II,  replying  in  1559, 
sustained  his  father's  ruling.^  And  the  Crown  continued  to  sup- 
port the  cause  of  the  merchants,  especially  after  1574,  when  the 
alcabala  was  collected  in  Spanish  America.  Thereafter  any 
check  upon  monopoly  prices  decreased  the  revenues  from  this  tax 
on  sales.  As  the  almojarifazgo  was  an  ad  valorem  duty,  its  pro- 
ceeds were  similarly  affected.  The  lawyer,  Solorzano,  remarks 
that  this  protection  might  be  invoked  only  if  the  merchant  acted 
honorably,  and  did  not  attempt  to  comer  goods  or  control  prices 
in  disservice  of  the  public.^  But  there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the 
advantage  that  accrued  to  the  Seville  monopolists. 

*  Encinas,  i,  p.  429;  A.  de  I.,  Patr.  2.  2.  i/i,  no.  36. 

*  Encinas,  i,  p.  430.  »  Polit.  Ind.,  lib.  vi,  cap.  16. 


138  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

Not  until  the  eighteenth  century  was  an  exclusive  company,  in 
the  more  usual  form  of  a  single  joint-stock  organization,  given  a 
trial  in  Spanish-American  trade.  A  project  of  this  sort,  to  which 
even  foreigners  were  to  be  admitted,  had  been  drawn  up  for 
Charles  II  in  or  about  1672.  It  was  suggested  by  Manuel  da 
Lira,  one  of  the  Coimcil  of  the  Indies,  as  the  only  means  of  restor- 
ing Spanish  commerce,  the  decay  of  which  was  then  complete; 
but  the  idea  was  too  radical  to  find  approval  among  his  associates. 
Similar  proposals  were  made  by  Alvarez  Osorio  in  his  Extension 
Politica  in  1687,  and  in  1705-06,  during  the  War  of  the  Spanish 
Succession.^  Eventually  in  17 14,  when  the  new  dynasty  was 
firmly  seated  on  the  throne,  the  Company  of  Honduras  was 
created  to  take  over  the  trade  with  Central  America,  and  in  1728 
the  Guipuzcoana  Company  to  develop  the  resources  of  Venezuela, 
a  region  till  then  almost  completely  ignored  by  the  Spaniards. 
Their  activity  was  restricted  to  comparatively  small  areas,  but 
perhaps  for  that  very  reason,  though  endowed  with  a  monopoly, 
their  influence  was  more  beneficent  than  that  of  the  irresponsible 
firms  combined  in  the  Consulado  of  Seville  or  Cadiz. 

To  maintain  more  readily  this  restrictive  system,  legitimate 
ports  of  entry  for  the  greater  portion  of  Spanish  America  were 
made  few  and  far  apart.  For  New  Spain  there  was  the  single  city 
of  Vera  Cruz,  while  all  of  South  America,  except  the  Caribbean 
coast,  was  supplied  via  the  isthmus  of  Panama  and  the  Pacific. 
Direct  trade  through  the  Strait  of  Magellan  was  entirely  for- 
bidden. After  commerce  was  confined  to  the  annual  fleets,  the 
lesser  Caribbean  ports  and  the  principal  West  Indian  islands  were 
supplied  by  small  vessels  sailing  each  year  in  their  company. 
Merchandise  allotted  to  these  inferior  regions  was  permitted, 
except  for  a  short  time  between  1589  and  1591,  to  be  distributed 
from  one  port  or  island  to  another.  But  it  had  first  of  all  to  be  dis- 
embarked at  its  original  destination,  and  under  no  circumstances 
might  it  be  carried  to  the  major  ports  of  Cartagena,  Porto  Bello, 
or  Vera  Cruz,  which  were  stocked  by  the  galleons  or  by  the 
Mexican  flota.^ 

*  Bibl.  Nat.,  Mss.  Espagne,  vol.  152,  fol.  81;  Antunez  y  Acevedo,  p.  276. 
2  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  18,  par.  14,  15. 


THE  SPANISH  MONOPOLY  1 39 

The  number  and  tonnage  of  these  supplementary  ships  was 
fixed  by  law,  and  the  choice  of  vessels  and  cargo  generally  left 
to  the  discretion  of  a  proctor  or  attorney  kept  in  Spain  by 
most  American  towns  and  provinces  to  represent  their  interests. 
To  San  Domingo  were  usually  assigned  from  two  to  six  ships,  and 
perhaps  as  many  to  Havana.  Two  small  vessels  sailed  to  Porto 
Rico,  and  as  many  to  Yucatan,  to  Honduras,  to  Florida  (for  a  few 
years  early  in  the  seventeenth  century),  and  to  the  island  of 
Margarita  as  long  as  the  pearl  fisheries  endured;  one  to  Trinidad 
(after  1616),  two  to  Rio  de  la  Hacha  (one  in  the  seventeenth 
century),  and  after  1607  one  small  ship  to  meet  the  combined 
needs  of  Jamaica  and  Santiago  de  Cuba.^  Cumana,  La  Guayra 
and  other  settlements  on  tierra  firme  were  similarly  provided 
for.  Vessels  intended  for  the  Greater  Antilles,  Honduras  and 
Yucatan  sailed  with  the  New  Spain  fleet;  those  which  supplied 
Margarita,  Trinidad  and  the  South  American  mainland,  with  the 
galleons  bound  for  the  isthmus  of  Panama.  All  ships  going  out 
imder  convoy  of  the  former,  except  those  for  Porto  Rico,  were 
expected  to  rejoin  the  fleet  at  Havana  for  the  homeward  voyage. 
Those  sailing  with  the  galleons  reassembled  at  Cartagena,  to  meet 
them  on  their  return  from  the  isthmus.  Porto  Rican  vessels, 
being  so  far  to  the  windward  of  Havana,  were  not  required  to 
call  there.  If  there  were  five  or  six  returning  from  Hispaniola, 
they  were  sometimes  permitted  to  form  a  separate  squadron  with 
those  of  Porto  Rico,  and  sail  to  Spain  alone.  From  time  to  time  an 
isolated  ship  received  license  to  depart  for  one  of  these  secondary 
ports  in  the  Indies,  but  only  with  the  condition  that  it  return 
imder  convoy. 

Veitia  Linaje  tells  us  that  one  of  the  most  flagrant  sources  of 
harm  to  the  India  commerce  was  the  practice  of  "  arribadas 
maliciosas,"  i.  e.,  trading  vessels  entering  ports  not  indicated 
in  their  licenses  with  the  plea  that  they  were  driven  in  by 
foul  weather  or  other  misfortune,  or  appearing  in  America  with- 
out any  license  at  all  on  the  pretense  of  sailing  under  letters  of 
marque.  In  1591  the  penalty  for  such  deceits  was  made  the  same 
as  for  sailing  apart  from  the  fleets  —  forfeiture  of  ship  and  cargo, 
^  Vdtia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  13. 


I40  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

and  ten  years  in  the  galleys  for  the  master  and  pilot.  If  a  ship  was 
really  in  distress,  it  could  require  every  reasonable  aid  and  com- 
fort; but  it  was  not  permitted  to  land  any  of  the  cargo  unless  unfit 
to  proceed  farther,  when  the  goods  were  unloaded  and  put  in  bond 
till  other  freights  could  be  secured  to  the  port  of  registry.  Persons 
who  purchased  goods  of  such  vessels  were  also  liable  to  loss  of 
property  and  condemnation  to  the  galleys.  Unlicensed  slave- 
ships  with  their  cargoes  had  to  be  remitted  to  Spain  for  judgment 
by  the  Coimcil  of  the  Indies. 

The  "  question  of  Buenos  Aires  "  is  one  of  the  most  striking 
examples  of  the  eccentricities  of  Spanish  policy.  The  La  Plata 
region,  to-day  the  commercial  metropolis  of  South  America,  and 
rivalling  New  York  in  the  variety  and  volume  of  its  shipping  and 
other  mercantile  activities,  was  till  near  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century  almost  completely  closed  to  the  rest  of  the  world. 

Buenos  Aires  as  a  permanent  settlement  dates  from  1580.  Its 
location,  far  from  the  centre  of  Spanish  power  in  the  West  Indies, 
and  next  door  to  the  Portuguese  in  Brazil,  made  an  adequate 
control  of  trade  there  extremely  difficult.  And  as  it  became  the 
object  of  the  Sevillan  merchants  to  prevent  European  goods  from 
reaching  the  Pacific  coast  through  any  channel  save  that  of  the 
galleons  and  the  Porto  Bello  fair,  from  the  beginning  direct 
trade  with  this  region  without  special  license  seems  to  have  been 
forbidden,  though  the  actual  decrees  are  wanting.  Under  the  cir- 
cumstances, the  proximity  of  Brazil  was  an  irresistible  temptation 
to  the  settlers  to  secure  by  illicit  trading  what  was  denied  them  in 
Spain.  And  the  fact  that  Portugal  was  then  a  dependency  of  the 
Spanish  Crown  did  not  make  such  traffic  any  less  unlawful.  Fray 
Francisco  de  Vitoria,  bishop  of  the  interior  province  of  Tucuman, 
was  apparently  the  first  to  send  a  vessel  to  his  Brazilian  neigh- 
bors. With  silver  from  Potosi  he  purchased  from  them  a  second, 
and  laded  the  two  with  sugar,  conserves,  and  merchandise  to  be 
disposed  of  in  Tucuman  and  Upper  Peru.  The  expedition  had  an 
unfortunate  ending,  for  on  its  return  to  the  Rio  de  la  Plata  in 
February,  1587,  it  fell  in  with  three  English  ships  commanded  by 
Thomas  Cavendish  on  their  way  to  the  Pacific.   The  Spaniards 


THE  SPANISH  MONOPOLY  I4I 

were  robbed  of  all  their  cargo,  and  to  preclude  their  giving  an 
alarm,  compelled  to  sail  away  with  the  corsairs  for  a  space  of 
twenty-nine  days,  after  which  they  returned  to  Buenos  Aires.* 
In  the  following  year,  the  colonists  exported  to  Brazil  flour  to  the 
value  of  about  3500  ducats,  and  imported  over  6000  ducats  worth 
of  merchandise.  And  in  spite  of  royal  commands,  the  governors 
tolerated  the  introduction  of  slaves  and  other  commodities,  in 
exchange  for  the  products  of  the  country,  wheat,  hides,  wool,  and 
tallow. 

This  region  could  not  hope  to  prosper,  however,  so  long  as  it  was 
dependent  solely  upon  an  irregular  commerce  of  this  sort.  A  new 
governor,  Diego  Rodriguez  de  Valdes  y  de  la  Banda,  who  arrived 
at  Buenos  Aires  in  January,  1599,  reported  the  conditions  there  as 
very  miserable.  He  wrote  to  the  king  that  for  years  past  not  a 
single  vessel  had  come  from  Spain,  and  that  the  settlers,  while 
they  had  an  abundance  of  beef  and  a  few  vegetables,  lacked  all 
the  other  necessaries  of  civilized  life.  Many  went  about  covered 
with  skins,  like  the  Indians.  European  articles  imported  via 
Panama  and  Peru  cost  from  800  to  1000  per  cent  more  than  in 
the  peninsula,  and  there  was  no  money  with  which  to  buy  them. 
The  treasury  did  not  contain  a  real.  He  urged  the  need  of  open- 
ing the  port  to  Brazilian  trade,  and  represented  that  the  province 
could  easily  consume  60,000  ducats  worth  of  goods  a  year. 2 

As  a  result  of  this  and  other  appeals,  in  August,  1602,  Philip  III 
accorded  to  the  inhabitants  of  La  Plata  for  six  years  the  privilege 
of  exporting  annually  in  their  own  vessels,  to  Brazil,  Guinea  "  y 
otras  yslas  drcunvecinas  de  vassallos  Mios,"  2000  bushels  of 
grain,  500  quarters  of  tallow  and  25  tons  of  jerked  beef.  They 
might  bring  back  any  commodities  they  required,  provided  the 
goods  were  not  reexported  to  another  part  of  the  Spanish  Indies. 
But  immigration  and  the  introduction  of  slaves  was  stringently 
forbidden,  as  well  as  direct  trade  with  Spain .^  Already  in  1600 
and  1601  the  king,  and  his  viceroy  at  Lima,  had  published  orders 
repeating  the  ban  on  trade  of  Peruvian  merchants  through 

*  Madero,  Historia  del  Puerto  de  Buenos  Aires,  i,  p.  259  (Letters  of  Rodrigo  de 
Z&rate  and  the  treasurer  Montalvo,  1587). 

*  Ibid.,  pp.  295  f.  '  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xviii,  p.  323. 


142  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

Buenos  Aires  and  Brazil,  and  forbidding  persons  to  go  to  Spain  by 
that  route.^  Indeed  the  privilege  of  Buenos  Aires  was  interpreted 
in  so  narrow  a  sense  that  not  even  the  contiguous  region  of  Tucu- 
man  was  allowed  to  share  in  it,  as  becomes  clear  in  a  later  decree 
of  1606.2 

Whether  the  concession  was  renewed  at  the  end  of  the  six  years 
is  imcertain.  We  only  know  that  the  settlers  petitioned  to  have  it 
made  perpetual,  and  imlimited  as  to  the  character  of  ships  and 
exports.  To  this  the  Consulado  of  Seville  steadfastly  opposed  its 
objections.  An  open  port  at  Buenos  Aires  would  create  a  wider 
door  for  the  fraudulent  extraction  of  Peruvian  gold  and  silver.  It 
would  decrease  the  tonnage  of  the  galleons,  already  greatly 
diminished,  and  make  the  annual  sailing  of  the  fleets  impossible. 
For  the  monopolists  naively  admitted  that  freights  and  other 
charges  would  be  cheaper  by  way  of  the  Rio  de  la  Plata. 

In  September,  1618,  therefore,  the  older  policy  was  renewed, 
and  the  inhabitants  of  Buenos  Aires  restricted  to  the  miserable 
allowance  of  two  vessels  a  year,  of  not  over  one  hundred  tons  each. 
Of  the  scant  importations  thus  possible,  a  part  might  be  carried 
overland  to  Peru,  on  payment  at  Cordoba  on  the  frontiers  of  a 
customs  duty  of  50  per  cent,  over  and  above  the  regular  almo- 
jarifazgo  and  averia  already  imposed  at  Seville  and  Buenos  Aires.* 
It  was  a  bounty  not  Hkely  to  be  appreciated  by  the  La  Plata 
settlers. 

Time  and  time  again  in  the  seventeenth  century,  the  colonists 
begged  for  an  outlet  for  their  products,  and  as  often  the  vested 
interests  of  the  merchants  of  Seville  and  Lima  proved  too  strong. 
The  latter,  indeed,  demanded  the  retrocession  of  what  little 
liberty  had  already  been  granted.  The  provinces  of  La  Plata, 
they  maintained,  were  of  slight  importance,  possessed  all  that 
was  necessary  to  human  life,  and  could  exist  without  maritime 
connections.  If  they  suffered  any  prejudice,  it  was  as  nothing 
compared  with  the  possible  damage  to  the  ancient  and  noble 
commerce  of  the  galleons.  Moreover,  after  1681  the  island  of 
San  Gabriel,  a  Portuguese  settlement  on  the  Rio  de  la  Plata,  was 

1  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xviii,  p.  298;  xix,  p.  185. 

*  Antujttez  y  Acevedo,  p.  122.  '  Recop.,  lib.  ix,  tit.  14,  ley  i. 


THE  SPANISH  MONOPOLY  I43 

maintained  as  a  base  for  clandestine  trade,  and  under  cover  of  the 
right  of  importation  through  the  aduana  of  Cordoba  introduced 
contraband  goods  into  the  interior  of  the  continent. 

It  was,  in  fact,  never  found  possible  to  reconcile  the  prosperity 
of  this  region  with  the  existence  of  that  lucrative  monopoly,  to  the 
comfort  and  extension  of  which  Spanish  legislation  was  mainly 
directed.  In  spite  of  an  abundant  and  fertile  soil,  the  province 
remained  unpeopled.  In  1677,  a  century  after  the  foundation  of 
Buenos  Aires,  the  Marquis  of  Barinas  pointed  out  to  a  junta  of 
the  Council  of  the  Indies  that  there  were  not  3000  Spaniards  in  a 
country  which  could  easily  support  100,000  or  more.^  Even  after 
the  aboHtion  of  the  galleons  in  1740,  when  the  principal  motive 
for  this  policy  disappeared,  the  trade  of  Buenos  Aires  was  left 
subject  to  the  old  limitations.  The  port  remained  closed  till  1778, 
when  Charles  III,  among  other  reforms,  placed  the  Rio  de  la  Plata 
on  an  equality  with  the  rest  of  the  Spanish  Indies.  Meanwhile, 
except  for  the  trade  of  the  interloper,  goods  from  Europe  had  to 
go  first  to  Porto  Bello  on  the  isthmus,  be  carried  across  to  the  city 
of  Panama,  be  reshipped  down  the  Pacific  to  Callao,  and  finally 
transported  overland  through  the  mountains  of  Peru  and  present- 
day  Bolivia,  to  Paraguay  and  the  Argentine  —  an  incredibly 
expensive  and  burdensome  process. 

One  suspects  at  times  that  the  Andalusian  merchants  were  not 
altogether  honest  in  their  concern  for  the  suppression  of  the  port 
of  Buenos  Aires.  The  few  ships  permitted  to  sail  there  were  laded 
at  Seville  by  these  same  commercial  houses;  and  imder  cover  of 
the  permission  to  send  over  a  limited  quantity  of  goods,  perhaps 
100,000  pesos  a  year,  on  which  they  paid  the  customary  duties  to 
the  king,  they  embarked  several  millions  on  which  they  paid  no 
duty  at  all.  It  was  to  their  interest,  therefore,  to  keep  the  conces- 
sion as  small  as  possible.  The  less  that  was  legally  permissible, 
the  wider  were  their  opportunities  for  illegitimate  gain. 

Another  avenue  through  which  vanished  potential  profits  of  the 
Sevillan  merchants  was  the  trade  across  the  Pacific  with  the 
Philippine  Islands  and  China.   The  Phihppines  had  been  visited 

*  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xix,  pp.  239  ff. 


144  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

first  by  Magellan  in  152 1,  and  formally  claimed  in  the  name  of  the 
Spanish  Crown.  Although  by  the  treaty  of  Saragossa  in  1529 
Charles  V  had  impliedly  relinquished  his  rights  over  the  archi- 
pelago, the  fact  was  later  ignored  by  the  Spaniards,  and  in  1542- 
43  an  unsuccessful  attempt  made  from  New  Spain  by  Rui  Lopez 
de  Villalobos  to  take  possession  of  the  islands.  Permanent  settle- 
ment by  white  men,  however,  dates  from  the  time  of  Philip  II, 
the  achievement  of  another  expedition  fitted  out  on  the  Mexican 
coast  and  commanded  by  the  distinguished  conquistador,  Miguel 
Lopez  de  Legaspi.  In  1565  was  founded  San  Miguel  on  the  island 
of  Cebti,  to-day  the  town  of  Cebu,  and  in  1571  the  city  of  Manila, 
which  became  the  Spanish  capital.  By  the  time  of  his  death  in  the 
following  year,  Legaspi,  although  he  encountered  enormous 
obstacles,  not  the  least  of  which  was  the  neglect  of  the  govern- 
ment at  home,  had  explored  and  pacified  a  large  part  of  the  island 
territory,  and  established  the  colony  on  a  practicable  basis. 

Legaspi's  expedition  was  also  the  occasion  for  another  discovery 
important  for  the  navigation  of  the  Pacific.  Until  then  no  one  had 
succeeded  in  crossing  the  sea  from  Asia  to  America,  for  all  had 
sailed  within  the  tropics,  where  the  equatorial  current  and  the 
prevailing  east  winds,  while  rendering  the  voyage  from  Mexico 
comparatively  easy,  paralyzed  any  attempt  to  return.  One  of 
Legaspi's  ships,  however,  the  San  Pedro,  guided  by  his  chief 
navigator,  Andres  de  Urdaneta,  by  taking  a  northeast  course  from 
the  Philippines  entered  a  region  of  variable  winds,  and  was  thus 
enabled  to  reach  the  vicinity  of  the  Califomian  coast,  at  about  the 
fortieth  parallel  of  latitude,  whence  the  prevailing  northwesters 
carried  it  easily  back  to  Mexico.  The  most  prominent  points  on 
the  North  American  littoral  were  soon  tolerably  well  known,  and 
so  became  established  the  route  which  the  Acapulco  galleons  were 
to  follow  for  the  next  two  centuries. 

For  a  score  of  years  after  the  conquest,  the  islands  were  appar- 
ently allowed  free  trade  with  Spanish  possessions,  and  several 
fleets  sailed  directly  from  the  peninsula  through  the  Strait  of 
Magellan.  But  the  storms,  the  cold,  and  the  ocean  currents  in 
that  region  were  too  formidable  for  navigators  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  and  communication  was  soon  restricted  to  the  shorter, 


THE  SPANISH  MONOPOLY  I4S 

safer  route  across  the  north  Pacific  from  the  shores  of  New  Spain. 
1  he  Philippines,  however,  lay  close  to  China,  Japan  and  the 
Moluccas,  with  their  rich  possibilities  in  the  way  of  trade;  and  it 
was  soon  realized  that  an  opening  was  afforded  for  the  introduc- 
tion  into  Spanish  America  of  oriental  fruits,  silks,  cottons, 
porcelains  and  other  commodities,  to  the  great  advantage  of  the 
colonial  consumer.  The  trade  began  with  the  establishment  of  the 
Spaniards  at  Manila,  where  Chinese  junks  were  already  accus- 
tomed to  resort  to  traffic  with  the  natives,  and  China  fabrics  at 
once  undersold  those  of  Europe  in  Mexico  and  Peru.  As  tropical 
America  produced  little  of  which  the  Orient  stood  in  need,  the 
returns  had  to  be  made  in  silver  coin  or  bullion;  and  the  more 
silver  sent  to  the  East,  the  less  remained  for  Spain.  It  was  a 
situation  which  Spanish  merchants  could  only  view  with  the 
greatest  misgivings.  And  so  there  followed  the  familiar  restric- 
tions, limiting  commerce,  as  at  Buenos  Aires,  to  a  fixed  amount 
annually,  and  hindering  the  natural  economic  development  both 
of  the  islands  and  of  America. 

At  first  ships  had  sailed  to  the  East  from  Callao,  Panama  and 
other  southern  ports,  as  well  as  from  the  shores  of  New  Spain. 
A  Spanish  merchant  wrote  from  Panama  on  August  28,  1590: 

Here  I  have  remained  these  twenty  days,  till  the  shippes  goe  for  the 
Philipinas.  My  meaning  is  to  carie  my  commodities  thither;  for  it  is  con- 
stantly reported,  that  for  every  hundred  ducats  a  man  shall  get  six  hundred 
ducats  cleerely.  We  must  stay  here  till  it  be  Christmasse.  For  in  August, 
September,  October  and  November  is  it  winter  here  and  extreme  foule 
weather  upon  this  coast  of  Peru,  and  not  navigable  to  goe  to  the  Philipinas 
nor  any  place  else  in  the  South  Sea.  So  that  at  Christmasse  the  shipes  begin 
to  set  on  their  voyage  for  those  places.^ 

Two  months  earlier,  on  June  20,  Sebastian  Biscaino  was  writing 
to  his  father  from  Mexico  City: 

.  .  .  foure  moneths  past,  I  came  from  China,  and  landed  in  Acapulco, 
seventy  leagues  from  Mexico,  which  is  the  harbor  where  the  ships  that  goe 
downe  to  China  lye:  and  all  the  marchants  of  Mexico  bring  all  their 
Spanish  commodities  downe  to  this  harbour,  to  ship  them  for  that  country 
.  .  .  here  are  foure  great  ships  of  Mexico  of  600  and  800  tunnes  a  piece, 
which  onely  serve  to  cary  our  commodities  to  China  and  so  to  returne  backe 
againe.  The  order  is  thus  .  .  .  from  hence  their  two  first  ships  depart  at  one 

1  Hakluyt,  Navigations  (ed.  of  1904),  x,  p.  176. 


146  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

time  to  China:  and  are  thirteen  or  fourteen  moneths  returning  backe 
againe.  And  when  these  two  ships  are  returned,  then  the  other  twaine  two 
moneths  after  depart  from  hence  ...  I  can  certifie  you  of  one  thing;  That 
200  ducates  in  Spanish  commodities,  and  some  Flemish  wares  which  I 
caryed  with  me  thither,  I  made  worth  1400  ducates  there  in  the  countrey. 
So  I  make  account  that  with  those  silkes  and  other  commodities  which  I 
brought  with  me  from  thence  to  Mexico,  I  got  2500  ducates  by  the  voyage.^ 

It  was  this  extraordinarily  lucrative  commerce  which  the  Span- 
ish government  undertook  to  curtail  for  the  benefit  of  the  Seville 
monopolists.  The  shipment  of  Chinese  cloths  from  Mexico  to 
Peru  or  Tierra  Firme  was  forbidden  in  1587,  and  at  about  the 
same  time,  it  seems,  direct  trade  between  South  America  and  the 
PhiKppines  or  China  was  also  prohibited.  In  1591  Peru  was 
again  allowed  to  import  from  New  Spain,  by  special  license  of  the 
viceroy,  such  oriental  goods  as  were  not  there  required ;  but  the 
ban  upon  direct  trade  with  the  East  was  reiterated,  and  in  1593 
and  1595  it  was  extended  to  Panama  and  Guatemala.^  In  1593 
Mexican  commerce  with  the  Philippines  was  confined  to  two 
ships  a  year,  neither  to  exceed  300  tons  burden.  The  two  vessels 
sailed  under  charter  of  the  royal  exchequer,  might  bring  250,000 
pesos  in  China  goods  to  New  Spain,  and  carry  500,000  in  silver 
back  to  the  islands.  This  limited  commerce,  moreover,  was 
declared  a  monopoly  of  the  Spanish  settlers  in  the  archipelago, 
those  in  America  being  debarred  from  any  share,  direct  or  in- 
direct, under  severest  penalties.^  Navidad,  from  which  Legaspi 
sailed  in  1564,  had  remained  for  some  years  the  principal  Mexican 
port  for  the  Philippine  connection.  But  it  was  quickly  super- 
seded by  Acapulco,  which  had  a  larger,  deeper  harbor  and  better 
overland  communications  with  Mexico  City.  And  to  this  port  the 
Eastern  trade  was  confined  until  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, a  town  of  negroes,  Chinese,  and  mulattoes,  which  owed  its 
distinction  entirely  to  the  annual  Philippine  fair.  Ships  usually 
departed  from  Manila  in  the  month  of  June,  and  by  a  law  of  1633 
were  required  to  set  sail  from  Acapulco  no  later  than  the  end  of 

^  Hakluyt,  Navigations  (ed.  of  1904),  x,  p.  164. 

*  Recop.j  lib.  ix,  tit.  45,  ley  5;  Extracto  Historial,  p.  247b;  Encinas, i,  pp.  283fiF. 

*  Colecc.  de  Espana,  lii,  p.  565;  N.M.C.,  xviii,  no.  55;  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser., 
xix,  p.  124;  Recop.,  lib.  ix,  tit.  45,  leyes  i,  6,  9,  10,  12,  15,  44,  68. 


THE  SPANISH  MONOPOLY  1 47 

the  following  December.  The  eastward  trip  consumed  from  five 
to  six  months,  the  return  no  more  than  three. 

The  temptation  to  circumvent  such  restrictions  was,  of  course, 
irresistible.  Within  a  decade,  the  silver  withdrawn  each  year  from 
New  Spain  to  pay  for  Chinese  imports  rose  to  over  two  million 
pesos,  and  the  clause  forbidding  reexport  to  Peru  remained  a 
dead  letter.  The  effect  upon  the  trade  of  the  Atlantic  fleets,  and 
on  the  king^s  revenues  therefrom,  was  instantaneous;  and  this 
oriental  commerce  must  have  been  one  of  the  principal  causes  for 
the  relative  decline  of  that  between  Spain  and  America  in  the 
seventeenth  century.  In  a  code  of  ordinances  published  in  Decem- 
ber, 1604,  the  king  renewed  the  embargo  in  a  more  rigorous  form. 
No  oriental  goods  might  be  sent  to  Peru  even  as  a  gift,  charitable 
endowment,  or  for  use  in  divine  worship.*  In  1619  he  was  peti- 
tioned to  stop  the  Acapulco  trade  altogether,  and  permit  ships  to 
sail  only  from  Spain.^  And  in  1621  it  was  suggested  that  the 
traffic  be  transferred  to  Panama,  where  mercantile  interests  would 
be  less  inclined  to  its  abuse,  and  supervision  by  the  resident 
audiencia  more  strict.  The  archbishop  of  Seville,  in  a  letter  to  the 
king  several  years  before,  had  expressed  the  fear  that  political 
independence  might  grow  out  of  the  economic  independence 
stimulated  by  this  commerce;  and  later  in  the  century  the  idea 
was  ventured  that  the  Phih'ppines  be  exchanged  for  Brazil,  in 
order  to  forestall  such  dangerous  tendencies.^  On  the  other  hand, 
in  1637,  1640  and  later  years  the  citizens  of  Manila  petitioned  for 
an  increase  of  the  "  permiso  ''  conceded  to  the  Phi^ppine  trade. 
The  population,  and  therefore  the  needs,  of  the  islands  had 
doubled  since  the  beginning  of  the  century,  yet  the  appeals  met 
with  no  response.  And  the  system  established  in  1593  continued 
without  change  till  the  time  of  the  Bourbons.-* 

In  the  East,  no  Spanish  subject  was  permitted  to  trade  with 
China  directly.  That  commerce  was  in  the  hands  of  Chinese  mer- 

^  Recop.,  lib.  ix,  tit.  45,  ley  69. 

'  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  13,  par.  11. 

'  Colecc.  de  Espana,  lii,  p.  565;  B.  M.,  Add.  Mss.  13,975,  fol.  219. 

*  After  a  long  controversy  between  the  peninsular  authorities  and  those  of 
Manila,from  about  1697  to  1734,  in  the  latter  year  the  "  permiso  "  was  raised  to 
500,000  pesos,  with  a  return  value  of  1,000,000  pesos. 


148  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

chants,  who  formed  the  major  part  of  Manila's  population,  and 
engrossed  the  local,  retail  business.^  It  may  have  been  because 
the  Flowery  Kingdom  was  regarded  as  within  the  Portuguese 
sphere  defined  in  the  treaty  of  Tordesillas.  But  the  risks  from 
pirates  and  typhoons  were  also  confined  to  the  heathen  foreigner, 
while  government  regulation  obviated  the  danger  of  monopoly 
prices.  The  Spanish  inhabitants  were  ofiicials,  priests,  land- 
owners, or  speculators  in  the  Acapulco  trade.  The  latter, 
circumscribed  as  it  was,  yielded  enormous  profits.  It  was  man- 
aged like  a  huge  government  lottery,  but  a  lottery  in  which 
each  ticket  drew  a  prize.^  The  nature  and  quantity  of  goods  re- 
quired were  generally  arranged  beforehand  between  the  Chinese 
importers  and  the  authorities  at  Manila;  and  the  right  to  ship 
was  apportioned  among  the  Spaniards  according  to  their  capital 
or  their  standing  in  the  community.  The  capacity  of  the  two 
vessels  (later  there  was  a  single  galleon  of  larger  dimensions)  was 
measured  by  taking  as  a  unit  a  bale  of  a  certain  size,  and  the  value 
which  might  be  shipped  in  each  bale  reckoned  by  dividing  the 
whole  number  into  the  total  value  of  the  cargo  permitted  by  law. 
The  bales  were  represented  by  tickets  or  "  boletas,"  and  their  dis- 
tribution determined  at  the  town  hall  by  a  joint  board  of  officials 
and  citizens.  Small  holders  who  did  not  care  to  take  a  venture  in 
the  voyage  disposed  of  their  tickets  to  merchants,  who  were  often 
affiliated  with  importing  houses  in  Mexico  City,  or  to  speculators 
who  borrowed  money  from  the  religious  corporations  at  25  or  30 
per  cent  per  annum,  and  frequently  purchased  as  many  as  two  or 
three  hundred .  The  command  of  the  Acapulco  ships  was  the  most 
coveted  office  in  the  gift  of  the  governor.  At  the  end  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  it  was  worth  40,000  pesos,  gleaned  from  com- 
missions, the  sale  of  tickets,  and  gifts  from  the  merchants, 
although  by  law  all  ship's  officers  were  forbidden  to  have  any 
share  in  the  trade.  The  pilot  cleared  20,000  pesos,  the  mates  9000 
each.  The  adventurers  expected  to  realize  from  150  to  200  per 
cent.^ 

^  Recop.,  lib.  ix,  tit.  45,  ley  34. 

2  Bourne,  introduction  to  The  Philippine  Islands,  I4g;}-i8g8,  ed.  by  Robertson 
and  Blair,  i. 

'  Martinez  de  Zuniga,  Estadismo  de  las  islas  Filipinas,  i,  pp.  266  ff. 


THE  SPANISH  MONOPOLY  1 49 

It  was  an  absurd  system,  which  discouraged  industrial  enter- 
prise among  a  naturally  indolent  people.  The  gains  from  the 
Acapulco  trade  were  so  easy  and  considerable  that  the  Spanish 
inhabitants  had  little  incentive  to  apply  themselves  to  anything 
else.  Agriculture,  mining,  and  other  native  industries  remained 
for  a  long  time  in  a  very  backward  state,  and  the  increase  and 
prosperity  of  the  islands'  population  were  retarded. 

There  was  an  import  duty  at  Manila  of  3  per  cent  (after  1606, 
6  per  cent)  on  articles  from  China,  and  a  2  per  cent  export  duty  to 
New  Spain.  At  Acapulco  was  collected  the  usual  10  per  cent 
almojarifazgo.  At  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century 
freights  on  the  royal  ships  were  40  ducats  a  ton. 

There  had  been  a  maritime  trade  between  New  Spain  and  Peru 
from  the  early  days  of  the  conquest.  Peruvian  merchants  were 
permitted  to  carry  silver  and  gold  in  bars  or  coin  to  Guatemalan 
ports  or  to  Acapulco,  and  exchange  them  there  for  the  agricultural 
products  of  the  northern  viceroyalty.  With  the  development  of 
Peruvian  plantations,  however,  the  export  of  wine  and  oil  to  the 
north  was  forbidden,  and  after  1587,  as  we  have  seen,  the  importa- 
tion of  China  goods  was  likewise  restricted  or  prohibited.  In 
1604,  and  again  in  1620,  this  intercolonial  traffic  was  further 
limited  by  the  Crown,  finally  to  an  annual  exchange  of  the  value 
of  200,000  ducats.i  But  here,  too,  fraud  was  the  rule.  One  ship 
sailed  each  year  from  Callao  to  Acapulco,  and  it  often  brought, 
not  200,000  ducats,  but  over  a  million.  If  there  was  not  sufficient 
trade  at  Acapulco,  the  money  was  carried  to  Mexico  City,  whence 
the  goods  purchased  were  smuggled  down  to  the  coast  and  em- 
barked on  the  ships  by  night.  For  form's  sake  a  few  articles,  on 
which  the  customs  were  lowest,  appeared  in  the  registers.  On  the 
return  voyage,  the  vessel  called  first  at  Payta  or  some  other  har- 
bor, and  under  cover  of  darkness  discharged  the  excess  cargo, 
meanwhile  sending  a  messenger  overland  to  Lima  to  announce 
their  approach.  Or  the  goods  were  taken  off  in  barks,  landed  near 

*  EoUracto  Historial,  pp.  15,  249.  It  is  said  to  have  ruined  the  cocoa  trade  of 
Guayaquil,  the  price  suddenly  dropping  from  36  pesos  to  3  pesos  per  quarter. 
Gonzdlez  Sudrez,  Historia  general  del  Ecuador,  iv,  p.  102. 


ISO  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

Callao  and  carried  on  mules  into  the  capital  city.  Sometimes  they 
were  put  into  a  vessel  loaded  with  lumber  from  Guayaquil,  and 
entered  Callao  hidden  under  the  wood  from  the  eyes  of  the  king's 
officers.  The  risks  were  great,  but  so  also  were  the  profits.  And  it 
was  estimated  that  in  one  way  or  another  the  Crown  lost  through 
this  secret  trade  200,000  ducats  a  year  in  revenue.*  As  the  regu- 
lations continued  to  be  evaded,  in  1634  all  trade  between  New 
Spain  and  Peru  was  interdicted  for  the  space  of  five  years; 2  but 
although  the  law  remained  on  the  statute  books,  and  was  printed 
in  the  Recopilacion  of  1681,  it  was  apparently  not  enforced. 

Wine,  too,  in  spite  of  the  pragmatics,  was  introduced  into  the 
provinces  of  Mexico  and  Central  America.  In  1669  the  Seville 
Consulado  complained  to  the  king  that  the  Honduras  trade  was 
declining,  Spanish  ships  with  wine  from  Europe  often  finding 
their  market  gone,  and  returning  with  a  loss  to  their  owners. 
Under  such  circumstances,  with  contraband  trade  flourishing, 
both  in  Oriental  commodities  to  Peru  and  in  wine  to  New  Spain, 
it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  when  the  inhabitants  of  Guate- 
mala or  Mexico  begged  the  king  for  greater  freedom  of  com- 
mercial intercourse,  as  frequently  happened  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  the  India  Council  was  adamant. 

It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that  some  of  the  restrictions 
upon  intercolonial  trade  were  proposed  by  the  colonists  them- 
selves. The  decree  forbidding  the  importation  of  Peruvian  wines 
into  Guatemala  was  first  suggested,  it  seems,  by  the  cabildo  of 
Guatemala  City,  because  such  wines  were  stronger  than  the 
Spanish,  readily  distilled  into  brandy,  and  very  injurious  to  the 
natives.  And  while  this  same  cabildo  clamored  for  free  trade 
with  the  southern  provinces,  it  was  just  as  insistent  that  cocoa 
from  Guayaquil  should  not  be  introduced  to  compete  with  the 
home  product. 

The  principal  reason  for  the  persistence  of  these  irregularities  is 
fairly  obvious.  Illicit  trade  between  the  colonies  was  possible 
because  colonial  officials  were  easily  corrupted,  and  officials  were 
corruptible  because  of  the  pernicious  system,  already  alluded  to, 

1  B.  M.,  Add.  Mss.  13,975,  fol.  229. 
.  *  Recop.,  lib.  ix,  tit.  45,  ley  78;  Extracto  Historial,  p.  15. 


THE  SPANISH  MONOPOLY  IS  I 

of  buying  and  selling  government  functions.  Spaniards,  proud  as 
a  race,  and  covetous  of  public  distinctions,  displayed  these  admir- 
able, but  perhaps  uneconomic,  qualities  most  intensely  in  the 
American  colonies.  Large  sums  were  paid  for  the  proprietorship 
or  life  tenure  of  a  post  whose  salary  was  comparatively  meagre, 
but  the  possession  of  which  lent  social  dignity  to  the  incumbent. 
Under  such  a  regime,  especially  when  the  centre  of  control  lay 
beyond  the  seas,  slackness  and  inefficiency  in  the  performance  of 
public  duties  was  almost  universal. 

The  narrative  written  by  Francisco  de  Toledo  of  his  journey  to 
Lima  in  1569  to  assume  the  post  of  viceroy  furnishes  interesting 
testimony  to  the  lax  enforcement  of  the  law  in  the  colonies. ^  At 
Cartagena,  where  he  called  with  the  fleet  on  his  way  to  Nombre 
de  Dios,  he  found  articles  in  the  customhouse  schedule  appraised 
at  one  third  less  than  their  real  value  in  the  city.  He  also  dis- 
covered Frenchmen  sojourning  there,  who  by  law  were  excluded 
from  the  Indies,  and  ordered  them  to  be  expelled.  At  Nombre  de 
Dios,  there  was  a  similar  discrepancy  in  the  collection  of  customs; 
and  thirteen  or  fourteen  Spanish  merchants  were  unearthed  who 
had  left  their  wives  in  Spain,  and  had  neglected  to  send  for  them 
as  the  statutes  required.  Being  men  of  wealth,  they  had  made  it 
unprofitable  for  the  local  authorities  to  enforce  the  king's  decrees. 
Toledo  had  them  arrested  and  delivered  to  Nicolas  de  Cardona, 
general  of  the  fleet.  From  the  city  of  Panama,  too,  imlicensed 
Spaniards  without  their  wives  were  apprehended  and  shipped  to 
Spain. 

Public  morals  in  Panama  he  found  in  a  very  bad  way.  Of  two 
criminal  clerics  at  large,  one  had  concealed  several  murderers  and 
aided  them  to  escape  from  the  province.  The  other  Toledo  had 
arrested  in  the  house  of  his  mistress.  And  the  viceroy  had  to  give 
formal  warning  to  the  bishop  to  attend  more  closely  to  such 
matters,  and  to  see  that  services  were  regularly  held  in  the  cathe- 
dral. Because  of  the  great  number  of  mistresses  in  the  city,  he 
ordered  the  apprehension,  so  he  told  the  king,  of  all  unmarried 
men  and  women,  and  the  banishment  of  such  as  the  audiencia 
designated.   He  also  issued  regulations  for  the  dress  of  negroes, 

^  Colecc.  de  Espana,  xciv,  p.  225. 


1 5  2  TRADE  AND  NA  VIGA  TION 

Indians,  and  half-breeds  in  public  places.  The  laws  respecting  pro- 
hibited books  had  never  been  observed,  and  those  found  in  the 
hands  of  booksellers  or  private  individuals  he  ordered  brought 
before  the  audiencia.  Finally,  the  judges  themselves  of  this  high 
court  were  bidden  to  keep  copies  of  all  royal  letters  and  decrees  in 
a  separate  book  apart  —  something  which  till  then  they  had 
consistently  neglected  to  do. 

A  memorial  to  Philip  III  in  1603,  from  Francisco  de  la  Guerra 
y  de  Cespedes,  royal  factor  in  Lima,  complains  of  the  irregularities 
in  the  trade  between  Peru  and  Tierra  Firme.  The  armada  which 
carried  the  king's  treasure  to  Panama,  he  charged,  brought  back, 
concealed  between  decks,  unregistered  merchandise  for  the 
admiral  and  his  friends.  Not  only  was  the  Crown  defrauded  in  the 
way  of  freights  and  customs,  but  because  of  this  traffic  the  fleet 
took  six  months  instead  of  three  for  the  voyage,  at  the  king's 
expense.  The  ship  captains,  formerly  chosen  by  the  treasury 
officers  from  among  practical,  experienced  men,  were  now  crea- 
tures of  the  viceroy,  and  connived  with  the  admiral,  also  a  vice- 
regal appointee,  to  rob  the  Crown  and  waste  its  ships.  The 
captain  of  the  port  at  Callao,  too,  under  protection  of  the  vice- 
roy's favor,  visited  merchant  vessels  leaving  or  entering  the 
harbor,  and  manipulated  the  registers  to  his  own  satisfaction; 
while  in  the  customhouse,  goods  from  Panama  or  New  Spain  were 
appraised  below  their  proper  value. ^ 

The  program  suggested  by  the  Marquis  of  Barinas  in  the 
second  half  of  the  century  for  the  better  protection  of  the  Spanish 
Indies  makes  repeated  reference  to  the  wide  extent  of  illicit  trade 
between  colonial  ports.  The  committee  to  which  his  proposals 
were  referred,  composed  of  the  Duke  of  Medinaceli,  president  of 
the  Council  of  the  Indies,  the  Marquis  of  Mancera,  formerly 
viceroy  of  New  Spain,  and  one  or  two  others  conversant  with 
Indian  affairs,  displayed  a  remarkable  tolerance  of  the  situation. 
Regardless  of  the  law,  they  advised  that  the  exchange  of  provin- 
cial products  be  acquiesced  in,  and  even  the  trade  in  China  goods, 
rather  than  entirely  prohibit  commercial  intercourse.^   It  was  a 

1  Colecc.  de  Espana,  lii,  p.  484. 

'  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xix,  p.  239.  For  the  life  and  character  of  the  Marquis  of 
Barinas,  see  Fernandez  Duro's  introduction  to  vol.  xii  of  the  Colecc.  de  doc.,  2d  ser. 


THE  SPANISH  MONOPOLY  1 53 

tolerance  probably  born  of  the  consciousness  that  Spain  was 
commercially  and  politically  impotent.  For  nearly  two  centuries, 
she  had  persisted  in  an  economic  policy  fatally  inconsistent  with 
her  powers  and  resources.  Although  struggling  under  tremendous 
disabilities  in  Europe,  she  was  still  attempting,  upon  the  slender 
pleas  of  prior  discovery  and  papal  investiture,  to  reserve  half  the 
world  to  herself.  That  Seville  should  try  to  supply  Spanish- 
American  markets  with  all  the  foreign  merchandise  they  required, 
that  Castile  should  imdertake  to  absorb  all  the  metallic  riches  of 
the  western  hemisphere,  were  stupendous  blunders.  One  city  was 
sufficient  to  conduct  the  early  trade  with  Hispaniola  and  neigh- 
boring islands;  but  its  success  was  no  justification  for  permitting 
what  might  have  been  a  temporary  provision  to  become  a  per- 
petual right.  As  it  was,  restrictions  and  prohibitions  proved  to  be 
little  avail,  and  the  system  of  great  annual  fleets  and  single  ports 
of  call  in  the  end  a  failure.  The  galleon  trade  grew  every  year 
weaker,  and  seemed  destined  to  disappear  altogether. 

Spain  did  not  invent  the  colonial  system.  It  had  been  applied 
earlier  by  the  Portuguese  in  the  East  Indies.  It  was  imitated 
later  by  the  Dutch,  English,  and  French.  It  was  the  policy  then 
current,  and  believed  to  be  best  for  the  welfare  and  independence 
of  the  state.  Nor  did  Spain's  exclusivism  greatly  exceed  that 
maintained  by  the  other  colonial  powers.  Her  distinction  rests 
upon  the  fact  that  she  had  the  opportunity  to  employ  it  in  a 
vaster  theatre  than  was  given  to  any  other  nation  before  the  nine- 
teenth century.  And  when,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  the  British 
Empire  surpassed  in  extent  and  resources  the  former  domains  of 
tjie  Hapsburgs,  the  older,  mercantilist  regime  was  already  dis- 
credited. Spain  was  no  less  judicious  or  disinterested  than  her 
neighbors.  But,  industrially  bankrupt  at  home  by  reason  of 
mistaken  economic  ideas,  the  colonial  system  in  her  case  was 
peculiarly  disastrous. 

Outside  Seville,  the  state  of  decomposition  of  the  Spanish  mon- 
archy was  clearly  manifest.  Not  only  were  the  Andalusian  mer- 
chants losing  their  grip  upon  the  trade  with  the  colonies,  but  the 
inhabitants  of  the  north,  in  the  Biscay  provinces,  were  forced  to 
fall  back  upon  methods  oi  the  Middle  Ages,  in  order  to  save  from 


p 


154  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

total  ruin  the  industries  by  which  they  had  always  lived.  Failing 
of  support  and  protection  from  the  central  government,  they 
negotiated  on  their  own  account  with  foreign  states;  with  France 
for  the  continuation  of  fishing  rights  on  the  Newfoundland  banks; 
with  England,  to  attract  merchants  to  their  ports  by  offering 
special  privileges  and  exemptions. ^  It  was  only  the  advent  of  a 
new  dynasty  which  postponed  for  a  hundred  years  the  final 
dissolution  of  the  Spanish  Empire. 

1  Fernandez  Duro,  Armada  Espanola,  v,  p.  338. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  PRECIOUS  METALS 

Of  all  that  Spain  drew  from  her  vast  colonial  empire,  the  most 
remarkable  commodities,  in  value,  in  volume,  and  in  influence 
upon  the  destinies  of  the  nation,  were  gold  and  silver.  The  New 
World  abounded  in  other  metals,  copper,  iron,  lead,  and  mercury, 
but  it  was  to  gold  and  silver,  and  to  mercury  because  it  was  useful 
for  the  extraction  of  silver,  that  the  Spaniards  devoted  all  their 
attention.  Iron  they  imported  from  Spain,  as  well  as  much  of  the 
copper  required  in  the  colonies.  The  Indians,  who  had  used  gold 
and  silver  only  for  ornament,  employed  copper  in  the  working  of 
tools  and  weapons.  But  with  the  introduction  of  iron  and  steel  by 
the  white  man,  the  copper  mines  were  neglected.  A  few  were 
operated  in  Chile,  in  the  eastern  part  of  Cuba  near  Santiago,  in 
Hispaniola  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  in  Venezuela  (the  mines 
of  Corcorote).  Ore  from  Hungary  was  preferred,  however,  as 
being  easier  to  reduce  and  in  the  end  less  expensive.  And  in 
Seville  most  of  the  copper  used  in  the  casting  of  artillery  came 
from  the  German  possessions  of  the  Hapsburgs.^ 

Under  the  Spanish  monarchy,  as  in  all  medieval  countries, 
mines  were  included  among  the  regalia  of  the  Crown.  In  1501 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella  forbade  any  one  to  seek  or  operate  mines 
in  the  New  World  without  their  express  permission.^  By  the  early 
part  of  1504,  this  permission  had  been  extended  generally  to  all 
Spaniards,  provided  they  first  registered  their  claims  before  the 
governor  and  oficiales  reales,  and  swore  to  bring  all  the  produce  of 
the  mines  or  gold  washings  to  the  royal  smeltery  (casa  de  fundi- 
cion)  to  be  assayed,  taxed,  and  stamped.  The  ordinance  was 
reissued  in  December,  1526,  and  its  benefits  applied  also  to  the 

^  In  1655  the  Crown  paid  25  ducats  silver  per  cwt.  for  Hungarian  copper.  At 
about  the  same  time  it  cost  29  pesos  per  cwt.  to  secure  copper  from  Chile,  the  source 
of  the  best  American  ore. 

*  Viajes,  iii,  p.  518. 

ISS 


IS6  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

Indians.  Only  public  officers,  such  as  corregidores,  governors, 
alcaldes,  their  deputies,  etc.,  were  specifically  excepted.^  Not  till 
1584  did  Philip  II  decree  that  in  the  future  mines  were  to  be  the 
permanent  possession  of  those  who  discovered  them,  rather  than 
a  concession  from  the  Crown,  and  as  such  might  be  freely  sold  or 
otherwise  disposed  of. 

It  was  never  a  practice  of  the  Crown  to  exploit  American  mines 
on  its  own  account.  The  quicksilver  mines  at  Huancavelica  in 
Peru  appear  to  have  been  the  only  important  exception.  Appar- 
ently in  Porto  Rico  and  in  Veragua,  immediately  after  the  con- 
quest, there  were  a  few  gold  deposits  worked  for  the  king.  But  as 
a  rule  the  interest  of  the  Crown  in  mines  discovered  on  royal  lands 
was  sold,  leased,  or  given  away,  and  Humboldt,  when  he  visited 
America  at  the  opening  of  the  last  century,  was  able  to  say  that 
"  all  the  metallic  wealth  of  the  Spanish  colonies  is  found  in  the 
hands  of  private  individuals." 

The  king,  however,  having  the  ultimate  title  to  all  mines  within 
his  dominions,  from  the  earliest  times  required  large  royalties 
from  his  subjects  for  the  privilege  of  their  development.  In 
Spain  the  Crown's  share,  at  least  since  the  reign  of  John  II,  had 
been  two  thirds. ^  And  this  proportion  was  exacted,  at  the  very 
first,  in  the  New  World. ^  But  to  hasten  the  discovery  and 
exploitation  of  the  mineral  resources  of  the  colonies,  it  was  quickly 
reduced.  Between  1500  and  1504,  in  consequence  of  petitions 
from  the  island  of  Hispaniola,  then  the  sole  Spanish  settlement  in 
America,  the  king's  portion  became  successively  one  half,  one 
third  and  one  fifth.*  The  "  quinto  "  was  established  for  ten  years 
by,  a  cedula  of  February,  1504,  continued  in  Hispaniola  till  1520, 
and  remained  till  the  eighteenth  century  the  general  law  for  all  of 
Spanish  America. 

1  Recop.,  lib.  iv,  tit.  19,  ley  i.  Decrees  were  repeatedly  issued  in  later  times  to 
protect  the  natives  in  their  rights,  doubtless  without  appreciable  effect.  Cf .  ibid., 
ley  14. 

*  Gallardo  Fernandez,  Origen,  progresos  y  estado  de  las  rentas  de  la  Corona  de 
Espaiia,  vi,  pp.  1-19. 

'  Viajes,  ii,  p.  165  (Instructions  of  April  10,  1495). 

*  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xxxi,  pp.  13,  216;  2d  ser.,  v,  p.  43.  In  the  case  of  rich 
mines  in  Hispaniola,  a  surtax  of  1/9  or  i/io  was  added  to  the  quinto.  Ibid.,  2d 
ser.,  V,  pp.  269,  334. 


THE  PRECIOUS  METALS  157 

Further  reductions  were  made  from  time  to  time  on  bullion 
from  regions  where  the  operating  costs  were  high  or  the  ores  of  a 
low  grade.  In  1520,  with  the  gradual  exhaustion  of  the  gold- 
washings  on  the  islands,  and  the  extinction  of  the  Indian  laborer, 
the  tax  there  on  placer  gold  was  fixed  at  one  tenth,  and  later,  in 
1552,  at  one  twelfth.^  The  ''diezmo"  was  extended  in  1530  to 
Nicaragua  and  Castilla  del  Oro,  and  in  1537  to  the  province  of 
Honduras.2  It  appears  from  the  papers  of  the  colonial  treasurers 
that  in  New  Spain  between  1523  and  1529  various  percentages 
were  charged  upon  the  precious  metals.  In  some  cases  one  fifth 
was  paid,  in  others  one  eighth,  one  ninth  or  one  tenth.  From  1 530 
to  1539  the  quinto  seems  to  have  been  universal,  but  after  1539 
an  eighth,  and  later  a  tenth,  was  collected  on  silver  from  partic- 
ular districts.^  One  fifth  was  the  royalty  on  gold  bullion  till 
1572,  when  it  too  was  reduced  to  a  tenth;  and  the  diezmo  became 
general  for  all  mines  in  Mexico  in  17 16.  In  Peru  the  quinto  pre- 
vailed without  exception  till  1 735.'*  As  decreed  in  1 504,  no  miner 
might  dispose  of  bullion,  or  have  it  wrought  into  plate  or  jewels, 
until  it  was  presented  at  the  casa  de  fundicion,  where  it  was 
smelted  if  necessary,  assayed,  and  after  the  subtraction  of  the 
quinto  impressed  with  the  royal  stamp.  By  laws  of  1537  and 
1550,  treasury  officials  were  required  to  be  present  three  hours 
on  Monday  and  Thursday  mornings  for  the  transaction  of  busi- 
ness, keep  a  detailed  account  of  all  gold  and  silver  which  passed 
through  the  assay  office,  and  send  a  statement  each  year  to  the 
king.^ 

It  is  related  in  an  earlier  chapter  that  the  suppl5dng  of  quick- 
silver to  the  colonies  became,  after  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  one  of  the  important  functions  of  the  Casa  de  Contra- 
tacion.  There  were  shipments  to  America,  apparently,  before 
that  time.  A  curious  decree  survives  of  April  19,  1495,  less  than 
three  years  after  Columbus'  discovery,  directing  a  certain  Alonso 

^  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  ix,  p.  460;  A.  de  I.,  6.  3.  2/14,  ramo  5. 
-  A.  de  I.,  Patr.  2.  2.  1/14,  no.  15;  Patr.  2.  6.  i,  ramos  15,  29. 
2  A.  de  I.,  4.  I.  1/19;  4.  I.  4/22;  4.  I.  s/23;  4-  2.  lo/i. 

*  Gallardo  Fernandez,  op.  cit.,  vi,  pp.  1-19;  Duport,  De  la  production  des  trUtaux 
pricieux  au  Mexique,  p.  161;  Colecc.  de  Espana,  v,  pp.  170  ff. 
'  Recop.,  lib.  iv,  tit.  22,  leyes  11,  12. 


1 5  8  TRADE  AND  NA  VIGA  TION 

de  Badajoz  to  send  to  the  bishop  of  Badajoz  in  Seville  fifteen 
hundredweight  of  mercury  for  transmission  to  the  Indies.^  That 
such  a  shipment  was  actually  made  is  extremely  doubtful;  yet, 
if  we  accept  the  testimony  of  the  historian,  Muiioz,  as  early  as 
1525  a  miner  named  Paolo  Belvio  was  sent  to  Hispaniola  with  a 
supply  of  quicksilver  to  expedite  the  gold  washings  by  means 
of  amalgamation. 2  As  1525  is  also  the  year  in  which  the  Welsers 
secured  equal  commercial  rights  in  the  New  World  with  Spanish 
subjects,  it  is  possible  that  the  incident  may  be  connected  with 
that  concession.  The  ancients  knew  of  the  amalgamating  prop- 
erties of  mercury,  and  it  seems  certain  that  German  miners,  even 
before  the  discovery  of  America,  used  that  element  in  extracting 
gold  from  auriferous  earths  and  ores. 

It  was  the  invention  of  a  process  of  amalgamating  silver  ores, 
however,  which  created  the  demand  for  quicksilver  in  the  Spanish 
colonies.  The  credit  for  this  invention  is  generally  given  to  Barto- 
lome  de  Medina,  a  native  of  Seville  who  had  gone  out  as  a  miner 
to  Pachuca  in  Mexico.  From  a  letter  of  the  audiencia  of  Mexico 
to  Charles  V  in  December,  1554,  it  appears  that  Medina  did  not 
discover  the  method,  but  learned  it  from  a  German  companion  in 
Europe.  This  German,  whose  name  remains  unknown,  Medina 
wished  to  bring  with  him  to  New  Spain,  but  was  forbidden  by  the 
Casa  de  Contratacion.  The  audiencia  requested  the  king  to  let 
down  the  bars,  and  permit  the  foreigner  to  cross.*  The  process, 
introduced  by  Medina  in  the  beginning  of  1556,  was  soon  used 
throughout  the  colonies  wherever  silver  mines  were  found,  and 
was  largely  responsible  for  the  great  influx  of  the  precious  metals 
into  Europe. 

The  two  sources  of  quicksilver  in  Europe  were  the  mines  of 
Almaden  in  southern  Castile,  and  those  of  Idria  in  the  Austrian 
Alps.  The  latter  had  not  been  operated  till  1497,  but  the  Spanish 
mines  were  of  a  distant  antiquity.  They  had  been  extensively 
worked  by  both  the  Romans  and  the  Moors,  and  under  Christian 
rule  were  included  in  the  territory  given  to  the  medieval  knightly 

*  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xxx,  p.  348. 

*  Humboldt,  The  Fluctuations  of  G»ld,  p.  26. 

'  Haebler,  Die  GeschicfUe  der  Fugger'schen  Handlung  in  Sp^nien,  p.  13I. 


THE  PRECIOUS  METALS  1 59 

order  of  Calatrava.  In  1524  they  were  leased  by  Charles  V  to  the 
German  banking  house  of  the  Fuggers,  and  operated  by  them  till 
1550.  The  interior  fabric  being  destroyed  by  fire  in  that  year, 
the  Fuggers  claimed,  by  virtue  of  a  clause  in  their  lease,  that  the 
Crown  should  pay  the  cost  of  reconstruction;  and  as  the  Crown 
refused,  the  mines  were  abandoned.^ 

The  finding  in  1555,  however,  of  the  rich  silver  deposits  of 
Guadalcanal  in  the  Sierra  Morena,  and  experiments  with  the  pro- 
cess of  amalgamation  in  Mexico  a  year  later,  gave  the  government 
a  new  interest  in  quicksilver.  The  export  of  this  metal  to  the  New 
World  was  made  a  royal  monopoly,  and  in  1557  commissioners 
were  sent  down  to  Almaden  to  attempt  a  restoration.  But  as  the 
Crown  possessed  neither  the  means  nor  the  experience  needed  to 
accomplish  the  work,  in  1562  the  mines  were  leased  again  to  the 
Fuggers.  They  were  evidently  to  be  set  in  order  at  the  Fuggers' 
expense,  for  the  latter  paid  no  rent  for  their  privilege.  They  were 
only  obliged  to  sell  all  the  product  to  the  Crown  at  a  stipulated 
price.2 

The  lessees  in  1562  agreed  to  deliver  1000  quintals  annually. 
In  1567  the  amount  was  raised  to  1200  quintals,  and  two  years 
later  to  1500.  But  Almaden  at  best,  in  the  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries,  probably  never  produced  more  than  3000 
quintals  a  year.  And  as  this  was  insufficient  to  meet  the 
requirements  of  New  Spain  alone,  recourse  was  had  for  a 
time  to  Germany.  German  quicksilver  was  supplied  to  the 
colonies  by  a  system  of  contracts  or  asientos  with  private  indi- 
viduals. Thus,  in  February,  1561,  a  certain  Rodrigo  Vaco  entered 
into  agreement  with  the  Crown  to  import  1000  quintals  from 
abroad,  and  send  them  to  the  Indies  for  sale  there  within  sixteen 
months.  He  might  bring  the  quicksilver  to  any  port  of  Spain, 
and  carry  it  to  any  port  in  America,  provided  he  registered  it  with 
the  officials  of  the  Casa  de  Contratacion.  For  the  privilege  he 
paid  into  the  treasury  of  the  Casa  20,000  ducats,  or  twenty  ducats 
per  quintal;  and  the  king  agreed  during  the  period  to  issue  no 

*  Haebler,  Die  Geschichte  der  Fugger'schen  Handlung  in  Spanien,  pp.  94,  103  f. 
'  Ibid.,  pp.  138-142.    The  Almaden  mines  are  still  among  the  richest  in  the 
world,  producing  from  800  to  1000  tons  a  year. 


l6o  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

general  license,  although  he  reserved  the  right  to  make  asientos 
with  other  individuals.^  Another  contract  was  made  with  Andres 
de  la  Rea  in  the  following  July,  for  2000  quintals  to  be  dehvered 
and  sold  within  three  years.  But  Rea  had  to  pay  the  Crown 
twenty-five  ducats  per  quintal,  instead  of  twenty,  and  deposit 
15,000  in  advance.  He  evidently  encountered  some  difficulty  in 
fulfilling  his  agreement,  for  his  time  of  grace  was  extended  to 
five,  and  later  to  six,  years.^ 

In  1564  was  discovered  the  famous  quicksilver  mine  of  Huan- 
cavelica  in  Peru,  which  proved  so  rich  that  Philip  II,  after  pre- 
liminary investigation  in  1568,  instituted  suit  for  its  possession. 
According  to  Solorzano,  eventually  it  was  sold  to  the  government 
by  Amador  de  Cabrera  (whose  Indian  had  found  it)  for  250,000 
ducats.^  Other  pits  in  the  vicinity  were  taken  over  by  the  Crown 
in  the  same  way,  to  the  disgust  of  their  owners.  As  they  were  to 
be  operated  by  contract,  however,  like  that  of  Almaden,  it  was 
agreed  that  in  giving  leases  the  discoverers  and  their  descend- 
ants should  be  preferred  before  any  others.  The  lessees  were 
assured  a  reasonable  price  for  the  mercury  they  extracted,  but 
must  dispose  of  all  of  it  to  the  government.  The  amalgamation 
process  was  not  imported  from  New  Spain  to  Peru  till  1573,  when 
it  began  to  be  used  at  Potosi.  But  the  deposits  at  Huancavelica 
were  so  productive  that  they  supplied  both  Peru  and  part  of  New 
Spain.  A  decree  of  1591  ordered  the  shipment  of  1500  quintals  a 
year  to  the  northern  viceroyalty. 

Almaden  and  Huancavelica  between  them  were  thereafter  able 
to  meet  all  the  requirements  of  the  New  World.  For  a  few  years 
in  the  second  quarter  of  the  seventeenth  century,  an  accident  to 
the  works  at  the  Peruvian  mine  stopped  the  supply  from  that 
source,  necessitating  the  use  again  of  German  quicksilver.  But 
after  1642  Germany  was  no  longer  tapped,  and  the  shipments  from 

1  A.  del.,  41.  2.  i/ii.  ^  Ihid. 

'  A.  de  I.,  109.  7.  14,  lib.  2,  fol.  123  v°;  Sol6rzano,  Politica  Indiana,  lib.  vi,  cap. 
2,  par.  13,  14.  Cabrera,  after  he  had  sold  his  holdings,  became  convinced  that  he 
had  been  cheated,  said  that  the  mine  was  worth  at  least  500,000  ducats,  and  entered 
suit  against  the  Crown.  He  carried  his  plea  to  Spain,  and  died  there  shortly  after. 
In  the  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  viii,  pp.  422  ff.  there  is  a  somewhat  different  account 
of  the  transaction. 


THE  PRECIOUS  METALS  l6l 

Europe  generally  seem  to  have  decreased  toward  the  end  of  the 
Hapsburg  regime.  Occasionally,  quicksilver  was  sent  to  New 
Granada  and  to  Guatemala.  An  order  of  July,  1619,  directed  that 
100  quintals  be  shipped  annually  to  Guatemala,  and  another  of 
February,  1626,  set  aside  200  quintals  for  the  Grenadine  provinces. 
Neither  was  regularly  observed. ^ 

Veitia  Linaje  declares  that  the  Crown  always  sold  quicksilver 
at  cost.2  An  examination  of  the  evidence  makes  it  difficult  to 
understand  what  he  meant  by  the  statement.  In  1562  the  Fug- 
gers  agreed  to  deliver  the  produce  of  the  Almaden  mine  to  the 
government  for  twenty-five  ducats  a  quintal.  By  the  new  con- 
tract of  1567  the  price  was  raised  to  twenty-six  ducats,  and  in 
1569  to  twenty-nine  ducats.  In  Mexico  at  the  same  time,  prices 
ranged  from  80  to  no  pesos,  an  increase  of  250  per  cent.^  It  is 
scarcely  possible  that  the  costs  of  transportation  alone  were 
responsible  for  this  difference.  Acosta,  in  1590,  reckoned  the 
annual  yield  of  Huancavelica  at  8000  quintals,  and  the  royal 
revenue  therefrom  at  400,000  pesos,  which  presupposes  a  profit 
of  fifty  pesos  per  quintal.^  In  1601,  a  memorial  of  Felipe  Fer- 
nandez de  Santillan  to  Philip  III  concerning  the  mines  at  Potosi, 
states  that  mercury  was  sold  there  at  seventy-five  pesos;  while 
Solorzano,  writing  a  few  years  later,  says  that  the  Crown  in  his 
day  paid  only  forty  pesos  at  the  Huancavelica  mine.^  A  royal 
cedula  of  October,  161 7,  fij^ed  the  price  in  New  Spain  at  sixty 
ducats,  or  eighty-two  and  three-fourths  pesos;  and  from  that 
time  there  was  no  marked  decrease  till  the  second  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  According  to  Humboldt,  between  1767  and 
1776  quicksilver  was  distributed  to  the  miners  in  Mexico  at 
sixty- two  pesos  per  quintal.  In  1777,  under  the  administration  of 

^  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  14,  par.  10. 

2  Ibid.,  par.  5. 

'  Haebler,  op.  cit.,  p.  143.  Humboldt  says  (Essai  Politique,  ed.  of  181 1,  iv,  p. 
89)  that  in  1590,  under  the  viceroy,  D.  Luis  de  Velasco,  a  quintal  of  mercury  sold  in 
Mexico  for  187  pesos.  But  this  was  without  doubt  an  extraordinary  figure,  due 
to  the  temporary  derangement  of  the  India  trade  and  the  shutting  off  of  the 
quicksilver  supply  after  the  destruction  of  the  great  Armada.  See  the  letter  of 
Bartolom6  Cano  from  Mexico,  May  30,  1590,  inHakluyt  (ed.  of  1904),  x,  p.  166. 

*  Acosta,  Historia  de  las  Indias,  lib.  iv,  cap.  11. 

*  Colecc.  de  Espana,  lii,  p.  447;  Sol6rzano,  op.  ciL,  lib.  vi,  cap.  2,  par.  25. 


1 62  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

the  enlightened  Galvez,  the  price  of  Spanish  quicksilver  was  fixed 
at  forty-one  and  one-fourth  pesos,  that  from  Germany  at  sixty- 
three  pesos.  1 

The  packing  and  shipping  of  this  commodity  from  Seville  was 
subject  to  elaborate  precautions.  Each  half  quintal  was  bottled 
in  a  soft,  well-sewn  skin,  and  placed  in  a  watertight,  reenforced 
cask.  If  intended  for  New  Spain,  three  casks,  i.  e.,  one  and  a 
half  quintals,  were  enclosed  in  a  wooden  box,  nailed,  bound  with 
cord,  and  wrapped  about  with  matting  on  which  were  painted  the 
royal  arms.  Packages  for  Tierra  Firme  contained  only  two  casks. 
Eighteen  quintals  were  reckoned  as  one  ton  freight;  and  with 
each  shipment  went  an  agent  accountable  for  its  safe  transmis- 
sion to  the  oficiales  reales  of  the  port  of  destination.  In  the 
seventeenth  century,  he  was  paid  twelve  ducats  for  every  ton 
delivered. 2 

In  years  when  the  fleets  did  not  sail,  two  small  galleons  were 
dispatched  to  Vera  Cruz  with  the  mercury  requisite  for  the  mines. 
If  necessary,  it  was  divided  between  New  Spain  and  Peru  by  the 
viceroy  in  Mexico  City,  who  forwarded  via  the  Pacific  the  portion 
intended  for  the  south.  These  vessels,  called  the  mercury  ships 
or  "  azogues,"  carried  from  2000  to  2500  quintals,  and  some- 
times convoyed  a  few  merchantmen.  The  practice  was  especially 
common  after  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  when  New 
Spain  was  no  longer  able  to  support  the  trade  of  annual  flotas.^ 
Those  whose  interest  it  was  to  advocate  direct  trade  with  the  Rio 
de  la  Plata,  urged  that  it  was  cheaper  to  send  mercury  to  Potosi 
from  Europe  via  Buenos  Aires,  than  to  transport  it  over  the 
mountains  from  Peru.  But  as  always  happened  when  the  opening 
of  the  Rio  de  la  Plata  was  involved,  their  solicitations  were  denied. 

In  view  of  the  role  played  in  European  poHtics  by  the  Spanish 
Hapsburgs,  it  is  interesting  to  know  exactly  the  extent  of  the 
revenues  drawn  by  the  Spaniards  from  their  ultramarine  posses- 
sions. Precise  figures  are  the  more  important  because  of  the 
vague  ideas  of  contemporary  and  later  historians.    The  extraor- 

1  Essai  Politique,  iv,  p.  89.  ^  Ibid.,  par.  11. 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  14,  par.  15,  18. 


THE  PRECIOUS  METALS  1 63 

dinary  character  of  the  remittances  from  America  gave  an 
exaggerated  image  of  their  volume  and  value,  and  to  many 
minds,  apparently,  they  were  the  very  foundation  of  Spain's 
political  greatness.  Early  observers  were  as  a  rule  comparatively 
modest  in  their  assertions,  but  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries  Castilian  fancy  knew  no  bounds.  Peter  Martyr  wrote  in 
the  second  decade  of  the  sixteenth  century,  before  the  conquests 
had  extended  to  the  mainland:  "  Solo  de  la  Espanola  se  trae  a 
Espana  todos  los  afios  la  suma  de  400,000,  y  a  veces  de  500,000, 
ducados,  se  entiende  que  eso  es,  del  quinto  que  viene  para  el  Real 
Fisco,  80,000,  90,000  y  100,000  castellanos  de  oro,  y  a  veces 
mas.  .  .  ."1  The  Venetian  ambassador,  Gasparo  Contarini,  in  a 
letter  of  November,  1525,  estimates  the  income  of  the  Crown 
from  the  Indies  at  about  100,000  ducats  a  year. 2  Another  Vene- 
tian, Niccolo  Tiepolo,  in  1533  remarked  that  the  treasure  from 
America  in  one  year  amoimted  to  150,000  ducats,  in  another  to 
not  more  than  50,000.  In  1548  Mocenigo  gives  the  entire  returns 
for  the  Crown  as  about  350,000  ducats,^  and  three  years  later 
Marino  Cavalli  raises  the  figure  to  400,000.  In  1558  Michel 
Soriano,  ambassador  to  Philip  II  at  his  accession,  remembers 
that  people  spoke  of  "  millions  "  of  pesos ;  but  in  fact  the  king  was 
receiving  only  between  400,000  and  500,000  ducats  a  year.  Even 
in  1 56 1  Andrea  Badoero  reckons  the  income  from  America  at  not 
more  than  half  a  million.  Finally,  the  Spanish  historian  Gomara 
wrote  in  1552  that  in  the  sixty  years  the  Spaniards  took  to  dis- 
cover, conquer  and  explore  the  American  continent,  the  gold  and 
silver  they  won  thereby  was  not  to  be  reckoned.  It  passed  sixty 
million  ducats. 

Among  seventeenth  century  writers,  we  find  estimates  less 
restrained  and  judicial.  It  is  true  that  in  1 618  Luis  Valle  de  la 
Cerda  {Desempeno  del  Patrimonio  Real,  etc.,  cap.  xv)  calculates 
in  roimd  figures  the  amount  of  gold  and  silver  received  from 

^  Decade  iii,  lib.  8,  cap.  3.  Decade  iii  was  finished  in  October,  15 16,  and  this 
chapter  was  probably  written  in  th<at  year. 

2  Ranke,  Die  Osmanen  und  die  spanische  Monarchie  (ed.  of  1857),  p.  399.  The 
actual  income  was  very  likely  nearer  75,000  ducats, 

'  Ibid.  The  receipts  of  the  Casa  de  Contrataci6n  in  that  year  were  little  over 
108,000  ducats.    The  annual  average  for  the  decade  was  148,000  ducats. 


164  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

America  during  the  first  hundred  years  at  more  than  500  millions 
for  the  king  and  private  individuals;  ^  an  estimate  which  was 
probably  not  far  from  the  reality.  In  1626,  however,  Pedro 
Fernandez  de  Navarre te  {Conservacion  deMonarquias,  etc.,  Disc. 
xxi)  computed  the  returns  up  to  his  time  at  1536  millions;  2  while 
the  worthy  Dr.  Sancho  de  Moncada  (Restoracion  PolUica,  etc., 
16 1 9,  Disc,  iii,  cap.  i),  in  deploring  the  scarcity  of  money  already 
noticeable  in  the  peninsula,  accepts  the  statement  that  the 
registered  income  from  America  for  the  sixteenth  century  alone 
had  been  two  billion  pesos.* 

It  would  be  fruitless  to  quote  the  figures  of  other  and  later 
Spanish  publicists.  Their  estimates  for  the  sixteenth  century  were 
generally  based  upon  the  word  of  writers  who  preceded  them, 
men  who  possessed  little  real  information,  and  whose  methods 
were  as  uncritical  as  their  own. 

The  bullion  from  the  New  World  which  each  year  entered  the 
Guadalquivir  or  the  Bay  of  Cadiz,  while  scarcely  sufficient  to 
"  pave  the  streets  of  Seville  with  blocks  of  gold  and  silver,"  ^  was 
remarkable  enough  to  a  country  where  poverty  has  always  been 
rather  a  virtue  than  an  offense.  The  receipts  of  the  treasurers  of 
the  Casa  de  Contratacion  show  a  steady  increase  from  1503  until 
well  into  the  reign  of  Philip  II,  though  they  fluctuate  widely  from 
year  to  year.  Much  depended  upon  the  security  of  the  seas  about 
Europe,  and  also  upon  the  vicissitudes  of  colonial  expansion  in 
America.  The  royal  income  from  the  Indies,  only  about  3,000,000 
maravedis  when  the  Casa  was  organized,  rose  suddenly  to  over 
22,000,000  in  1505,  to  34,000,000  in  1512,  to  46,000,000  in  1518, 
and  in  1535  to  119,000,000.  In  the  intervening  years  the  r^it- 
tances  sometimes  dropped  very  low.  In  15 16,  and  again  in  1520, 
they  were  only  about  13,000,000,  and  in  1521  a  little  over  2,000,- 
000.    But  this  was  also  the  time  when  the  wars  between  Haps- 

1  Colmeiro,  Economia  Politica,  ii,  p.  431,  note  2.  The  unit  referred  to  is  prob- 
ably the  ducat. 

2  Ibid.  Navarrete  was  copied  by  Gil  Gonzalez  Davila  (Teatro  de  las  grandezas 
de  la  Villa  de  Madrid,  1623,  pp.  471  f.);  and  later  in  the  century  probably  by  Sol6r- 
zano  {De  Indiarum  Jure,  1629-39,  lib.  v,  cap.  i),  and  by  Nunez  de  Castro  {Solo 
Madrid  es  Corie,  2d  ed.,  1669,  lib.  i,  cap.  13). 

*  Ibid,  *  Alonso  Morgado,  in  his  history  of  Seville  published  in  1587. 


THE  PRECIOUS  METALS  165 

burg  and  Valois  began  to  oppress  Europe,  and  French  corsairs 
were  swarming  about  the  Azores.  In  the  Indies,  too,  while  the 
gold  washings  on  the  islands  were  failing,  Spanish  energies  were 
directed  toward  the  reduction  of  the  Aztec  provinces  of  Mexico. 
It  was  not  till  later  that  the  wealth  of  New  Spain  compensated 
for  the  decline  of  insular  gold  production.^ 

After  1535,  when  it  became  the  practice  to  accumulate  Ameri- 
can treasure  on  occasional  armadas,  the  receipts  of  the  Casa  in 
certain  years  were  unusually  heavy.  Thus,  with  the  arrival  of 
the  squadron  of  Blasco  Nunez  Vela  in  1538,  there  were  over  371,- 
000,000  mara'^Bk  credited  to  its  treasurer.  The  gold  and  silver 
for  the  king  oKhis  fleet  amounted  to  280,000,000  maravedis,  or 
about  750,000  ducats, 2  most  of  it  from  Peru.  Of  the  Peruvian 
treasure,  about  268,750  ducats  were  in  gold,  and  335,000  in  silver. 
There  were  also  nearly  80,000  ducats  from  Cartagena,  208  ducats 
worth  of  pearls,  and  a  gold  nugget  weighing  over  fourteen  pounds 
and  worth  1630  ducats.  The  rest  of  the  treasure  came  from  Cen- 
tral America  and  the  West  Indian  islands.^  The  fleet  of  Martin 
Alonso,  which  entered  San  Lucar  in  June  of  1543,  carried  573,000 
ducats  in  bullion,  about  equally  divided  between  Peru  and  Mexico, 
and  over  9000  ducats  value  in  pearls."*  The  Peruvian  bullion  was 
sent  home  by  the  hcentiate  Vaca  de  Castro,  who  had  gone  out  in 
1540  to  compose  the  differences  among  the  Spanish  conquista- 
dores.  It  is  probable  that  up  to  this  time  the  Crown  had  received 
something  over  a  million  ducats  from  the  former  Inca  dominions.^ 

*  See  Appendix  IV. 

2  The  ducat  in  Spain  was  worth  375  maravedis,  the  escudo,  350.  The  silver 
peso  of  the  colonies  was  valued  at  272  maravedis,  and  the  gold  peso  or  "peso  de 
oro  "  at  450. 

'  See  Appendix  VII. 

*  The  largest  pearls  came  from  the  Pacific  islands  near  Panama.  Those  on  the 
Caribbean  coasts  were  smaller,  weighing  at  most  from  2  to  5  carats,  but  were  found 
in  greater  quantities.  Oviedo,  in  his  History  published  in  1547,  declares  that  the 
royal  quinto  from  the  pearl  fisheries  amounted  to  15,000  ducats  and  more  a  year. 
He  says  that  he  himself  possessed  a  round  pearl  weigMng  26  carats,  and  secured 
another  in  1529,  pear-shaped,  which  he  sold  to  a  representative  of  the  Welsers  in 
San  Domingo  for  450  pesos  de  oro.  Pedrarias  Ddvila  paid  over  1200  pesos  for  a 
pear-shap>ed  pearl  of  very  fine  color  in  Santa  Maria  del  Dari^n  in  15 15.  It  weighed 
31  carats,  and  later  found  its  way  into  the  possession  of  the  Empress.  Historia  de 
las  Indias,  lib.  xix,  caps.  2,  8. 

'  A.  de  I.,  Patr.  2.  2.  1/6,  no.  37;  10.  3.  1/25,  ramo  i. 


1 66  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

The  most  celebrated  of  the  treasure  fleets  of  Charles'  reign,  one 
which  profoundly  impressed  men  of  the  time,  was  that  which 
carried  Pedro  de  la  Gasca  to  Spain  after  he  had  finally  restored 
the  king's  authority  in  the  South  American  viceroyalty.  When 
this  wily  Jesuit  arrived  in  the  Indies  in  1548,  he  is  said  to  have 
had  with  him  no  more  than  400  ducats.  He  borrowed  what  was 
needed  to  buy  arms,  artillery  and  horses  for  the  war  against 
Gonzalo  Pizarro,  and  during  the  two  years  he  was  in  Peru  spent 
altogether  about  900,000  pesos  de  oro.^  Before  leaving,  he 
scraped  together  all  the  funds  he  could  lay  hands  on,  and  the  gold 
and  silver  forfeited  by  the  rebels,  and  after  repaying  the  900,000 
pesos  de  oro,  was  able  to  bring  back  to  his  king  a  store  of  bullion 
worth  567,000,000  maravedis,  or  a  million  and  a  half  ducats !  One 
of  the  eight  vessels  comprising  the  squadron,  which  carried  a 
quarter  million  more,  was  cast  away  about  twenty-five  leagues 
east  of  Nombre  de  Dios,  but  the  treasure  was  saved,  and  sent  to 
Spain  in  the  following  year. 

In  the  reign  of  Philip  II,  the  bullion  remitted  on  the  Indian 
flotas  increased  steadily  in  volume,  from  between  six  and  eight 
hundred  thousand  ducats  in  the  beginning  to  two  or  three  million 
toward  the  close.^  It  was  partly  owing  to  the  development  of  the 
gold  deposits  of  New  Granada  and  the  rich  silver  mines  of  Mexico 
and  Potosi;  partly  the  result  of  the  concentration  after  1560  of 
almost  the  entire  trade  with  the  Indies,  and  all  the  trafl&c  in  bul- 
lion, upon  yearly  fleets  to  Vera  Cruz  and  Nombre  de  Dios.  In  an 
accounting  made  in  Madrid  in  October,  1608,  of  the  probable 
receipts  and  expenditures  of  the  royal  exchequer  during  the  fol- 
lowing twelve  months,  the  revenue  from  the  Indies  was  reckoned 
at  2,000,000  ducats.^  The  fleet  which  arrived  in  the  autumn  of 
1626  under  command  of  Tomas  de  la  Raspuru,  with  the  bullion 
from  both  Vera  Cruz  and  Panama,  carried  on  the  king's  account 
3,504,000  pesos  (about  2,540,000  ducats)  in  gold,  silver  and 

1  Lopez  de  G6mara,  Historia  de  las  Indias,  lib.  v,  cap.  81. 

'  In  1587,  the  Mexican  treasurer  forwarded  to  Spain  1,343,000  ducats,  the  largest 
remittance  in  the  sixteenth  century. 

'  Colecc.  de  Espana,  xxxvi,  p.  549.  At  this  time,  the  drain  of  the  Low  Countries 
alone  upon  the  Spanish  monarchy  averaged  over  3I  million  ducats.  Ibid.,  p. 
509. 


THE  PRECIOUS  METALS  1 67 

reals,  although  some  of  the  ships  had  been  lost  by  storm  and 
from  attacks  of  corsairs.^  Nunez  de  Castro,  in  his  panegyric  of 
Spain,  Solo  Madrid  es  Corte,  written  at  the  close  of  the 
reign  of  Philip  IV,  when  fleets  no  longer  sailed  every  year, 
declared  the  average  returns  of  the  galleons  and  flota  to  be  three 
and  a  half  million  ducats.  And  that  was  perhaps  as  much  as  the 
Crown  received  at  any  one  time  in  the  seventeenth  century .^ 

In  the  beginning  the  government  endeavored  to  limit  the 
amount  of  gold  and  silver  which  might  be  transmitted  on  a  single 
vessel,  doubtless  to  reduce  the  risks  from  pirates  and  shipwreck. 
In  Ferdinand's  time,  when  vessels  were  very  small,  the  maximum 
was  5000  pesos  de  oro.  Under  Charles  it  was  soon  raised  to 
10,000,  and  later  to  15,000  (12,000  and  18,000  ducats).  A  decree 
of  July,  1552,  fixed  it  at  25,000  pesos.  But  the  rule  was  not 
strictly  observed.  In  a  ship  from  Cartagena  in  June,  1545,  there 
came  on  the  royal  account  about  44,000  pesos  de  oro.'  Another 
vessel  from  Vera  Cruz  in  July,  155 1,  brought  39,000  pesos.'*  The 
law,  moreover,  was  not  applied  to  the  large  fleets  which  sailed 
under  convoy.  The  armada  of  Pedro  de  la  Gasca  carried  an  aver- 
age of  180,000  pesos  in  each  ship.  In  the  Mexican  fleet  of  Diego 

1  B.  M.,  Add.  Mss.  13,976,  foL  16. 

2  The  remittances  from  New  Spain  under  Hapsburg  rule  reached  their  maximum 
at  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century,  about  a  million  and  a  half  pesos.  From  that 
time  the  annual  average  gradually  declined  to  about  400,000  in  the  middle  of  the 
following  century;  rising  to  over  700,000  during  the  government  of  the  archbishop- 
viceroy  Fray  P.  Henriques  de  Ribera  (1672-79);  and  then  slowly  dropping  again, 
till  in  the  last  decade  it  was  less  than  200,000.  The  decline  is  to  be  accounted  for 
less  by  the  decreasing  productivity  of  the  mines  than  by  the  heavier  charges  upon 
the  treasury  in  Mexico  City.  On  individual  flotas  in  the  last  decade  the  returns 
were  as  follows: 

1689 137,343  pesos. 

1690 389,052      " 

1693  400,819      " 

1696  426,922      " 

1697-1700  609,182      "     (three  fleets). 

The  whole  sum  remitted  to  the  king  between  1663  and  1700,  during  the  government 
of  sLx  viceroys,  was  13^  million  pesos.  B.  M.,  Add.  Mss.  13,964,  fol.  196;  N.  Y. 
Public  Library,  Mss.  Dept.,  Ford  Collection:  Mexico.  Real  Hacienda  .  .  .  1688- 
i6q6,  etc 

'  A.  de  1.,  2.  3.  6/7,  ramo  i. 
*  A.  de  I.,  2.  3.  7/8,  ramo  2. 


1 68  TRADE  AND  NA  VIGA TION 

Felipe  in  1555,  the  average  was  80,000,  and  in  the  fleet  of  the  same 
year  from  Nombre  de  Dies  it  was  40,000.  But  most  single  vessels 
which  tapped  the  main  sources  of  bullion  supply  conformed  with 
the  regulations.  Finally,  in  July,  1556,  the  Crown,  in  its  need  for 
money,  ordered  the  colonial  authorities  thereafter  to  remit  all 
royal  funds  at  their  disposal  on  the  first  ships  departing  for 
Castile.  And  from  the  nature  of  later  shipments  it  is  clear  that 
any  amount  was  embarked  as  opportunity  and  vessels  offered,^ 

These  remittances,  of  course,  do  not  comprise  the  total  impor- 
tation of  coin  and  bullion  from  the  New  World.  Other  sums, 
doubtless  much  more  considerable,  came  over  to  pay  for  the 
European  goods  sent  to  the  colonies,  or  on  the  account  of  mine 
proprietors  residing  in  Spain,  or  of  other  individuals  who  after 
making  their  fortune  in  America  returned  to  spend  it  in  the  old 
country.  All  this  mass  of  bullion,  whatever  its  destination,  had 
first  to  be  deposited  with  the  Casa  de  Contratacion,  and  only 
after  long  and  minute  formalities  was  it  finally  distributed  to  its 
rightful  owners.  The  government,  as  already  explained,  had  two 
motives  for  insisting  upon  this  procedure.  It  wished  to  be  assured 
that  all  the  imposts  owing  to  the  Crown  had  been  paid,  and  that 
the  treasure  was  really  destined  to  Spanish  subjects.  Unfor- 
tunately, we  have  no  records  of  these  private  remittances  ap- 
proaching in  completeness  those  for  the  receipts  of  the  king.  No 
permanent  account  of  them  was  kept  by  the  Casa,  and  almost  all 
the  ships'  registers  have  disappeared,  the  few  surviving  in  the 
Archivo  de  Indias  being  of  too  desultory  a  character  to  make  any 
generalizations  from  them  possible. 

The  scattered  notices  in  other  contemporary  documents  do  not 
materially  assist  us.  We  are  told  that  the  value  of  the  cargoes  on 
eight  barks  from  America  in  May,  1525,  was  58,000,000  mara- 
vedis,  or  over  150,000  ducats.  But  how  much  belonged  to  the 
king  and  how  much  to  his  subjects,  is  not  stated.^  In  February, 
1534,  Hernando  Pizarro  returned  to  Spain  with  the  first  instal- 
ment of  the  booty  from  Peru.  Two  hundred  thousand  pesos  de 
oro  were  registered  in  the  names  of  private  persons,  and  it  was 

*  A.  de  I.,  4.  2.  lo/i,  ramo  i. 

2  Fernandez  Duro,  Armada  Espanola,  i,  p.  423. 


THE  PRECIOUS  METALS  1 69 

said  that  the  actual  sum  was  nearer  three  hundred  thousand.  In 
March,  1535,  when  Charles  V  was  preparing  at  Barcelona  a  naval 
and  military  expedition  against  Barbarossa,  there  arrived  at 
Seville  from  Nombre  de  Dios  four  ships  carrying  about  2,500,000 
ducats  of  Peruvian  gold  and  silver;  and  to  help  defray  the  ex- 
penses of  his  African  campaign,  the  Emperor  seized  800,000 
ducats  out  of  the  bullion  consigned  to  private  individuals.^  A 
fleet  returned  from  New  Spain  in  1562,  under  conamand  of 
Bartolome  Carreno,  with  5,000,000  pesos  de  oro,  at  least  four 
fifths  of  which  must  have  been  private  treasure.^  The  French 
ambassador  at  Madrid,  M.  Fourquevaux,  who  kept  his  king  fully 
informed  of  the  coming  and  going  of  the  India  fleets,  reported  in 
September,  1566,  a  flota  of  thirty-seven  ships  carrying  4,047,000 
escudos  de  oro;  in  August,  1567,  a  fleet  from  New  Spain  bringing 
2,000,000;  in  June,  1568,  a  Peruvian  fleet  with  3,500,000  of  which 
about  a  million  belonged  to  the  Crown;  and  2,500,000  on  another 
armada  of  the  same  year  from  Vera  Cruz.^  The  historian,  Jose  de 
Acosta,  says  that  when  he  returned  from  America  (1587),  the 
bullion  on  the  two  fleets  of  Mexico  and  Tierra  Firme  totalled 
1 1,000,000,  the  royal  share  of  which  was  less  than  half.'*  In  1621 
the  consulado  exchanged  with  the  Crown  for  hillon  money  one 
eighth  of  the  registered  silver  in  the  armadas  of  the  previous 
autumn,  or  800,000  ducats;  from  which  we  gather  that  the  remit- 
tances by  private  hands  amounted  to  nearly  6,500,000.^  Finally, 
the  fleet  of  La  Raspuru,  mentioned  above,  which  brought  home 
2,540,000  ducats  on  the  king's  account,  carried  over  8,000,000  in 
addition  for  passengers  and  merchants. 

We  may  gain  some  idea  of  the  extent  of  private  importations 
from  another  source.  The  Crown  early  fell  into  the  habit,  when- 
ever it  was  in  straits  for  money,  of  appropriating  all  or  most  of  the 
bullion  transmitted  from  America.  The  dispossessed  persons  were 
generally  recompensed  with  perpetual  annuities  paying  from  3  to 

*  A.  de  I.,  2.  3.  2/3;  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xlii,  p.  492;  Oviedo,  op.  cU.,  lib.  vi, 
cap.  8. 

2  N.M.C.,  xxi. 

'  Lowery,  Spanish  Settlements,  ii,  appendix  i. 

*  Historia  de  las  Indias,  lib.  iv,  cap.  7. 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  17,  par.  53. 


I70  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

6  per  cent  on  the  capital  seized.^  All  treasure  so  embargoed  was 
noted  as  part  of  the  receipts  of  the  Casa  de  Contratacion.  The 
first  important  confiscation  of  this  sort  I  have  found  was  in  1523. 
It  amounted  to  300,000  ducats,  and  represented  all  the  gold  and 
silver  that  came  in  five  vessels  from  the  Indies.  The  money  was 
required  for  the  war  between  the  young  Emperor  and  his  rival 
Francis  I.^  In  1535,  as  already  related,  800,000  ducats  were  seized 
out  of  the  treasure  from  Peru,  most  of  it  doubtless  the  remit- 
tances of  Pizarro's  soldiers  to  relatives  at  home.  Only  sums  of 
400  pesos  or  over  were  taken,  and  their  owners  were  given  annui- 
ties bearing  3  J  per  cent,  which  if  not  redeemed  by  the  Crown 
within  six  years  were  to  become  perpetual.  For  the  African  war 
60,000  ducats  from  the  bullion  on  other  vessels  were  appropriated 
in  the  same  year.^  In  1538  all  the  private  moneys,  or  over  230,- 
000  ducats,  were  confiscated  from  the  armada  of  Blasco  Nunez 
Vela,  and  the  sequestrations  amounted  to  a  like  figure  in  1545.* 
Six  hundred  thousand  ducats  were  taken  from  the  fleet  of  which 
Bartolome  Carreiio  was  admiral  in  1553;  and  two  years  later 
425,000,  about  375,000  from  the  fleets  and  the  rest  from  funds  in 
the  chests  of  the  Casa's  treasurer.^  The  most  considerable  em- 
bargo of  that  time  was  in  the  winter  of  1556-57,  at  the  very  out- 
set of  Philip's  reign,  comprising  all  the  bullion  on  two  fleets  which 
returned  from  Vera  Cruz  and  Nombre  de  Dios  in  the  previous 
autumn.  It  reached  a  total  of  1,600,390  ducats,  and  was  two  and 
one-fourth  times  the  sum  brought  on  the  account  of  the  king. 
Altogether,  the  money  so  secured  in  the  time  of  Charles  V  alone 
was  about  5,000,000  ducats.^ 

1  Annuities  (juros)  settled  upon  certain  royal  revenues,  and  granted  in  discharge 
of  loans  to  the  exchequer,  were  not  frequent  till  the  time  of  the  Catholic  kings. 
They  were  of  two  sorts,  perpetual  and  redeemable  (perpetuos  y  alquitar).  They 
received  a  wide  extension  under  Charles  V,  and  continued  to  be  a  favorite  resource 
of  Hapsburg  rulers.  At  the  death  of  Ferdinand,  they  amounted  to  scarcely  350,000 
ducats  a  year.    At  the  accession  of  Philip  II,  they  consumed  about  a  million. 

2  A.  de  I.,  139.  I.  6,  lib.  9,  fol.  186. 

3  Ibid. J  2.  3.  2/3;  Patr.  2.  5.  1/6,  ramo  32, 

4  Ibid.,  2.  3.  4/s;  2.  3.  6/7,  ramo  i;  39.  3.  3/1. 

5  Ibid.,  2.  3.  9/10,  ramos  2,  3;  39.  3.  5/3.  The  annuities  issued  in  1553  paid, 
those  given  to  merchants  6^  per  cent,  those  to  other  persons  4^  per  cent. 

*  Ibid.,  2.  3.  9/10,  ramos  4,  5.    Yet  Charles  V  wrote  to  Phihp  from  Yuste  that 


THE  PRECIOUS  METALS  17I 

In  the  seventeenth  century,  such  forced  loans  continued  to  be 
frequent.  Philip  III,  just  before  his  death  in  162 1,  embargoed 
one  eighth  of  the  registered  treasure  on  the  fleets  which  had 
arrived  near  the  close  of  the  year  previous,  amounting  to  over 
800,000  ducats.  It  was  returned  within  the  year,  however,  as  his 
son  and  successor  hastened  to  inform  the  frightened  colonists. 
In  1629  Philip  IV  took  a  million  ducats  of  the  eight  million  regis- 
tered in  the  fleet  of  La  Raspuru.  In  1630,  500,000  were  seques- 
tered from  the  silver  brought  back  in  the  armada  of  Fadrique  de 
Toledo,  and  200,000  in  1632  from  another  fleet  of  La  Raspuru. 
Five  hundred  thousand  ducats  were  confiscated  in  1638,  and  in 
1649  another  million  from  the  Mexican  and  Porto  Bello  fleets 
together.^  In  each  case,  annuities,  settled  upon  the  proceeds  of 
certain  taxes,  were  issued  by  the  king  in  exchange. 

The  Crown  did  not  confine  its  solicitude  to  the  bullion  on  the 
fleets.  It  repeatedly  required  aids  or  subsidies  from  the  Sevillan 
merchants  through  the  gild  or  consulado,  either  as  a  free  gift  to 
succor  the  king  in  his  dire  necessities,  or  in  return  for  what  was 
often  the  pretense  of  a  royal  favor.  Thus  in  1625,  when  one  per 
cent  was  added  to  the  averia  to  defray  the  cost  of  an  armada  to 
rid  the  Pacific  of  Dutch  privateers,  the  consulado  paid  the  king 
400,000  ducats  in  silver  to  secure  that  the  tax  should  not  become 
permanent.  Incidentally,  Philip  needed  the  400,000  for  the  siege 
of  Breda  in  the  Low  Countries.  In  1628,  in  spite  of  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Mexican  flota  off  the  Cuban  coast  by  the  Dutch 
admiral,  Piet  Heyn,  the  merchants  lent  the  king  200,000  ducats 
for  the  entertainment  of  his  sister,  the  Queen  of  Hvmgary.  For 
half  of  the  loan  they  were  reimbursed  with  6  J  per  cent  annuities 
settled  on  the  millones  tax.  A  hundred  and  forty  thousand  pesos 
were  paid  by  the  consulado  in  1651,  by  way  of  composition  in 
criminal  suits  directed  against  certaiu  merchants  for  exporting 

they  were  robbing  him  in  Seville,  and  that  the  sequestrations  were  not  made  with 
the  rigor  desired. 

American  products  other  than  gold  and  silver  were  generally  exempt  from  these 
seizures;  on  the  ground,  says  Veitia  Linaje,  that,  being  less  easily  concealed,  they 
were  more  likely  to  pay  the  full  quota  of  taxes  to  the  king.  A  more  plausible  reason 
was  the  greater  diflEiculty  in  converting  them  immediately  into  money. 

^  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  17,  par.  53;  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xvii,  p.  215. 


172  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

silver  contrary  to  law  and  embarking  contraband  goods  for  the 
Indies.  And  in  1662  it  compounded  for  another  120,000,  for  dis- 
regarding the  registry  laws.^  Under  the  peculiar  conditions  then 
prevalent  in  the  India  trade,  the  Seville  merchants  must  have 
been  constantly  exposed  to  royal  mulctings  of  this  sort. 

These  benevolences  to  the  Crown  are  sufficient  testimony  of  the 
wealth  and  prosperity  of  the  merchant  princes  of  Andalusia.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  American  traffic  was  often  hampered,  and  its 
very  continuance  endangered,  by  such  wholesale  confiscations 
from  the  plate  fleets,  and  by  the  demands  for  loans  and  subsidies. 
The  discharge  of  the  debts  thus  incurred  by  means  of  pensions  or 
annuities,  instead  of  ready  money,  deprived  the  merchant  of  the 
capital  required  to  maintain  his  business;  and  if,  as  sometimes 
happened,  the  government  was  in  no  position  to  honor  them,  the 
results  were  disastrous.  The  process,  long  continued,  meant  an 
ever  greater  resort  to  credit  based  upon  the  good  faith  of  a  king 
whose  solvency  was  daily  more  suspected.  And  but  for  the 
extraordinary  profits  of  the  India  trade  in  favorable  years,  it 
would  have  ended  in  the  speedy  decay  of  that  mercantile  aristoc- 
racy of  which  Seville  was  so  proud. 

An  appreciation  of  the  danger  of  such  practices  manifested 
itself  early  in  Spain,  and  found  expression  in  protests  of  the 
Cortes  to  Charles  V  and  to  his  son.  The  Cortes  at  Valladolid  in 
1537  petitioned  the  Emperor  to  desist  from  taking  the  gold  of 
those  trading  with  or  returning  from  the  Indies;  for  if  such 
seizures  continued,  there  would  be  no  one  to  carry  on  American 
commerce,  and  men  in  the  colonies  would  not  dare  to  come  to 
Spain. 2  Charles  replied  that  the  taking  of  private  treasure  had 
been  confined  to  times  of  great  necessity,  and  would  be  so  limited 
in  the  future  —  poor  satisfaction  in  a  matter  which  touched  so 
closely  the  reputation  of  the  government  and  the  healthy  develop- 
ment of  mercantile  and  industrial  activities.  And  he  almost 
immediately  increased  popular  irritation  by  confiscating  all  the 
wealth  on  the  fleet  of  Blasco  Nunez.  It  is  true  that  in  a  cedula  of 
September,  1538,  he  gave  his  royal  word  not  to  repeat  the  per- 

1  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  17,  par.  53. 

2  Cobneiro,  Economia  Foliiica,  ii,  pp.  410  f. 


THE  PRECIOUS  METALS  1 73 

formance.^  But  five  years  later,  in  December,  1543,  Philip  was 
writing  to  the  Casa  in  his  father's  name,  relaying  a  command  to 
sequester  all  the  gold  and  silver  that  arrived  from  the  Indies.  The 
officials  were  to  act  with  all  dissimulation,  "  con  toda  disimula- 
cion,"  and  give  no  hint  that  such  an  order  had  emanated  from 
the  Crown. 2 

At  Valladolid  in  1555,  the  deputies  remonstrated  with  greater 
emphasis,  explaining  that  "  de  tomar  el  dinero  en  Sevilla  a  los 
mercaderes  y  pasajeros  que  vienen  de  las  Indias,  y  darles  juro  por 
ello,  se  recrecen  muchos  danos,  asi  a  aquellos  a  quien  los  toman, 
porque  no  pueden  hacer  sus  tratos  y  negociaciones  y  poco  a  poco  se 
iria  disminuyendo  la  contratacion,  como  k  aquellos  a  quienes  ellos 
daban,  porque  no  pudiendoles  pagar,  se  vienen  a  alzar  con  sus 
haciendas,  y  tambien  las  rentas  reales  vienen  en  disminucion  por 
causa  de  cesar  el  dicho  trato."  ^  As  before,  the  response  of  the 
Crown  included  a  vague  promise  of  redress,  which  it  did  not  dis- 
play the  least  intention  of  fulfilling;  for  in  1556-57  occurred  the 
gigantic  confiscation  of  1,600,000  ducats.  In  1558  the  Cortes 
returned  to  the  charge,  but  received  no  more  satisfaction  from 
Philip  II  than  from  his  imperial  father. 

Sooner  or  later  the  consequences  foretold  by  the  deputies  made 
themselves  felt.  Spaniards  in  the  colonies  hesitated  to  send  their 
gold  and  silver  on  the  fleets,  or  found  another  reason  for  conceal- 
ing and  shipping  unregistered  even  that  which  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  trade  was  carried  to  Seville  or  Cadiz.  •  Philip  in  the  end 
felt  impelled  to  move  more  circumspectly,  and  with  greater  regard 
for  the  interests  of  his  subjects.  A  letter  of  the  king  to  the 
audiencia  of  Las  Charcas  in  April,  1590,  reveals  a  chastened 
spirit  vividly  contrasting  with  that  shown  three  decades  earlier. 
He  writes: 

.  .  .  haviendose  offrecido  de  presente  nescessidad  .  .  .  de  socorrerme  de 
alguna  buena  cantidad  para  proseguir  algunos  yntentos  muy  jmiportantes 
.  .  .  accorde  de  ymbiar  a  Joan  de  Ybarra,  Mi  Secretario,  a  la  Ciudad  de 
Sevilla,  con  orden  de  que  sin  hacer  dano  al  trato  y  comercio,  ni  al  abiamiento 
de  las  flotas,  y  particularmente  a  los  mercaderes,  procurase  que  los  pasaxeros 

*  A.  de  I.,  Patr.  2.  5.  1/6,  ramo  37. 

^  Ibid.,  ramo  43. 

'  Quoted  by  Colmeiro,  op.  cii.,  ii,  p.  ^10. 


174  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

y  personas  que  truxesen  hacienda  para  emplear  en  renta,  en  las  flotas  que 
ultimamente  llegaron,  comprassen  juros  y  officios  segun  la  publicidad  e 
yntentos  que  cada  uno  tnixese,  tratandolo  con  las  mismas  personas  o  con  sus 
agentes,  de  manera  que  fuesse  con  su  voluntad  y  contentamiento;  y  que  si  por 
este  camino  no  se  pudiese  juntar  la  cantidad  nescesaria,  se  pidiere  lo  demas 
prestado  a  los  pasajeros,  mercaderes  que  vinieren  en  la  flota  de  Tierra- 
firme  a  emplear  sus  haciendas,  dandoles  a  entender,  que  pues  la  flota  de 
Tierra-firme  en  que  ellos  an  de  volver  con  sus  empleos  no  a  de  salir  hasta 
Otubre  deste  ano,  y  para  entonces  seran  venidas  las  (haciendas)  que  se 
esperan,  se  les  pagara  de  alli  muy  a  satisfaccion  .  .  .  y  hentendido  que 
desta  .  .  .  deligencia  a  resultado  mucho  sentimiento  en  mercaderes  y 
pasajeros  .  .  .  y  haviendo  Yo  mirado  en  que,  si  con  esta  Mi  falta  de  discurso 
llegare  alia  la  voz,  podria  ser  de  mucho  yncombiniente.  Me  a  parecido 
avisaros  de  la  verdad  de  lo  que  en  esto  passa,  para  que  la  hagais  alli  entender 
...  la  satisfacion  que  en  esto  se  da,  para  que  teniendola  de  lo  que  se  hace, 
prosigan  en  sus  contrataciones,  y  cada  qual  ymbie  su  hacienda  con  entera 
seguridad  de  que  Yo  no  mandare  tocar  en  ella  por  ninguna  caussa.^ 

Sequestrations  did  not  cease  in  the  following  reigns,  but  they 
seem  never  again  to  have  reached  the  proportions,  compared  with 
the  whole  volume  of  trans-Atlantic  trade,  which  they  assumed  in 
the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

The  Crown,  and  private  individuals,  in  order  to  expedite  the 
conversion  of  bullion  into  coin  of  the  realm,  sold  it  to  bullion 
merchants  who,  after  reducing  the  gold  and  silver  to  legal  fineness, 
presented  it  at  the  mint;  for  Spanish  mints  in  those  days  did  not 
imdertake  the  operation  of  refining.  In  Seville  there  were  usually 
several  private  companies  devoted  to  this  occupation,  and  known 
as  the  "  Compradores  de  Oro  y  Plata."  Eight  in  number  at  the 
opening  of  the  seventeenth  century,  they  were  later  reduced  to 
four.  For  the  business  was  a  very  speculative  one,  profits  depend- 
ing on  the  chance  of  bu3dng  at  a  reasonable  figure  bullion  which, 
if  not  poorer  than  indicated  by  the  American  assay ers,  was  at 
least  not  very  much  richer.  Earnings,  apparently,  were  rarely 
more  than  four  maravedis  on  a  marc  of  silver,  or  one  maravedi  on 
a  peso  of  gold.2  Veitia  Linaje  says  that  of  the  bullion  merchants 
in  earlier  times  many  went  bankrupt  and  few  left  a  fortune 
behind.  On  the  other  hand,  if  leagued  with  a  dishonest  minter, 
they  might  be  tempted  to  reduce  bullion  below  the  standard 

1  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xviii,  p.  424. 

2  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  33,  passim. 


THE  PRECIOUS  METALS  175 

which  the  law  required.  In  1590  suit  was  brought  against  the 
brothers  Castellanos  for  this  very  offense,  a  firm  which  had  con- 
ducted their  business  on  a  vast  scale,  and  by  the  boldness  of  their 
operations  had  made  themselves  masters  of  the  bullion  market. 
In  the  years  1584  and  1585  they  had  bought  up  all  the  lingots 
offered  by  the  royal  exchequer,  at  thirty-four  maravedis  above 
the  current  market  price;  and  their  prosecutors  maintained  that 
they  could  have  emerged  without  loss  from  such  a  transaction 
only  by  converting  the  gold  and  silver  into  coin  defective  in 
weight  or  fineness.  They  were  accused,  indeed,  of  having  realized 
in  this  way,  between  1570  and  1588,  as  much  as  244,000,000 
maravedis,  at  the  expense  of  the  king  and  of  the  public.  The 
figures  were  doubtless  grossly  exaggerated,  but  they  serve  to 
illustrate  the  dangers  of  such  a  system. ^  Perhaps  to  insure  a 
closer  regulation,  the  Crown  in  161 5  tried  to  make  the  business 
a  monopoly,  but  the  Sevillans  protested  that  it  was  too  pre- 
carious to  support  the  additional  burden  of  a  purchase  price  to 
the  government. 

The  Compradores  de  Oro  y  Plata  seem  also  to  have  engaged  in 
banking.  They  received  deposits  of  coin  or  bullion,  and  after 
1608,  at  least,  gave  40,000  ducats  security  to  the  consulado  to 
protect  such  operations.  In  the  purchase  of  gold  and  silver  from 
the  Crown,  however,  or  from  funds  like  the  "  bienes  de  difun- 
tos,"  special  surety  was  in  each  case  required  by  the  Casa.^ 

It  had  originally  been  customary  for  the  Casa  to  publish  the 
number  of  marcs  to  be  sold,  and  receive  bids  without  a  prelimi- 
nary trial  of  the  fineness  of  the  bars,  leaving  that  to  the  uncer- 
tainties of  speculation.  A  marc  of  Mexican  silver  generally 
brought  from  2172  to  2190  maravedis,  after  deducting  the  seign- 
iorage tax,  which  in  Philip  II 's  time  was  calculated  at  fifty 
maravedis  per  marc.  Lingots  from  Peru  were  presumed  to  have 
been  more  carefully  assayed,  and  sold  for  2300  maravedis  or 
more.   Sometimes,  however,  a  contract  was  made  by  the  Crown 

^  Gounon-Loubens,  Essais  sur  V administration  de  la  Castille  au  xvi^  siecle,  pp. 
262-265. 

*  A  charter,  setting  forth  the  duties  and  liabilities  of  the  partners,  had  to  be 
approved  first  by  the  prior  and  consuls,  and  then  by  the  president  and  oflScials  of 
the  Casa,  and  a  copy  deposited  with  the  Contadurfa  of  the  latter. 


176  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

with  one  or  more  compradores  in  advance  of  the  arrival  of  the 
fleets  to  take  all  the  bullion,  the  buyer  engaging  to  deliver  its 
value  in  reals  at  the  court  in  Madrid,  or  deposit  them  imme- 
diately in  Seville.  Or  the  Casa  tried  the  experiment  of  refining 
the  bullion  itself,  under  the  direction  of  the  factor.  But  in  the 
latter  case,  the  result  was  usually  delay  and  eventual  loss  to  the 
Crown. 

In  Veitia  Linaje's  time,  the  treasurer  of  the  mint  at  once 
credited  the  Casa  de  Contratacion  with  the  number  of  escudos  or 
reals  equivalent  to  the  bullion  purchased  by  the  compradores,  the 
latter  being  obliged  to  bring  the  refined  metal  to  the  mint  within 
a  specified  time.  Silver  was  then  sold  at  six  and  one-half  mara- 
vedis  per  marc  above  the  value  indicated  by  the  assayers  in  the 
Indies.  But  sometimes,  owing  to  the  dishonesty,  carelessness  or 
ignorance  of  these  officials,  their  figures  could  not  be  trusted. 
Such  a  case  had  occurred  as  early  as  1563,  when  silver  bars  were 
found  to  contain  from  60  to  100  maravedis  less  than  pretended; 
whereupon  the  bullion  merchants  refused  to  buy  any  more  till 
they  had  been  reassayed  by  the  Casa.^  There  was  the  same  pos- 
sibiHty  of  deception  in  connection  with  gold,  and  as  the  greater 
value  of  that  metal  made  it  the  more  redoubtable,  after  1603 
gold  was  sold  only  after  it  had  been  assayed  in  Seville. 

It  was  generally  understood  that  if  American  bullion  got  as  far 
as  the  mint,  it  was  purged  of  any  guilt  it  may  have  incurred  for 
nonregistration.  The  same  held  true  of  that  which  had  come  into 
the  hands  of  the  compradores.  Sometimes  the  Council  of  the 
Indies  attempted  to  contest  this,  but  without  permanent  success, 
for  all  the  weight  and  influence  of  the  mercantile  interests  of  the 
city  were  against  it.  The  houses  of  the  compradores  enjoyed  the 
privilege  of  freedom  from  visitation  by  any  judicial  authority 
under  any  pretext.  A  decree  of  August,  1647,  exempted  Ameri- 
can treasure  in  their  possession  from  sequestration  without  the 
approval  of  the  president  of  the  Casa;  and  their  books  and 
accounts  from  examination  except  on  the  president's  order.^ 
These  rulings  were  intended,  as  much  as  anything,  to  protect  the 
merchants  who  had  dealings  with  the  compradores,  so  that  their 
1  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  T,2>i  par.  15.  *  Ibid.,  par.  20. 


THE  PRECIOUS  METALS  1 77 

resources  might  not  be  made  public  except  for  such  purposes  as 
they  desired. 

The  report  that  one  of  the  plate  fleets  had  been  sighted  off  the 
Azores  was  news  of  supremest  interest,  not  only  to  the  Seville 
merchants,  but  at  the  court  of  Madrid,  in  Flanders,  and  in  Ger- 
many. On  the  safe  arrival  of  the  galleons  before  San  Lucar  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Guadalquivir,  or  in  Cadiz  harbor,  often  depended, 
even  in  the  time  of  Charles  V,  the  momentary  solvency  of  the 
government. 

Not  only  the  American  trade,  but  the  industrial  and  finan- 
cial insufficiency  of  Spain  herself  attracted'  hosts  of  foreign  mer- 
chants to  the  country.  Germans  and  Genoese  in  the  sixteenth 
century ,1  and  in  the  seventeenth  the  French,  gathered  into  their 
hands  not  only  a  virtual  monopoly  of  the  Spanish  fairs,  but  all 
the  financial  business  as  well.  As  early  as  15 15,  the  Cortes  tried 
to  limit  their  activities.  In  the  Emperor's  reign  they  were  already 
a  serious  menace.  As  neither  the  revenues  in  the  peninsula  nor 
the  treasure  from  the  Indies  was  sufficient  to  cope  with  the 
expense  of  the  wars,  Charles  and  his  successors  were  forced  into 
greater  and  greater  dependence  upon  these  foreign  capitalists. 
The  returns  of  gold  and  silver  from  America  were  mortgaged  in 
advance,  and  the  Fuggers,  the  Haros  and  the  Grimaldi  were  as 
much  concerned  with  the  safety  of  the  Indian  fleets  as  was 
the  Crown  itself.  In  1520-21  the  Fuggers  had  33,000  ducats 
hazarded  upon  the  remittances  from  the  New  World;  and  of  the 
800,000  ducats  embargoed  by  the  Crown  in  1535-37,  over  100,000 
went  to  this  same  German  house. 

Increasing  production  of  gold  and  silver  was  the  most  impor- 
tant cause  of  the  price  revolution  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries.  As  by  far  the  greater  part  of  this  metallic  wealth  came 
from  America,  the  function  of  Spain  in  the  movement  was  a  very 
significant  one.  She  became  the  distributor  of  the  precious  metals 
to  the  rest  of  Europe.  And  since  she  "  produced  little  and  manu- 
factured less,"  she  performed  this  function  with  an  efficiency 

^  In  the  earlier  part  of  the  century  also  a  few  Spanish  houses  established  at 
Antwerp,  like  the  Haros  and  the  Vaglios.  The  ledgers  of  the  India  House  frequently 
mention  the  payment  of  interest  to  foreign  bankers. 


178  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

which  startled  even  the  Spaniard.  The  balance  of  trade  in  Spain 
was  always  unfavorable.  In  time  of  greatest  prosperity  and  in 
spite  of  all  laws,  money  passed  out  of  the  country.  But  with  the 
injury  to  agriculture  which  must  have  resulted  from  the  revolt  of 
the  Comuneros,  and  with  the  naive  efforts  of  the  Cortes  to  stem 
the  rise  of  prices,  the  situation  of  Spain  toward  the  middle  of  the 
sixteenth  century  was  already  becoming  intolerable.  Her  manu- 
factures, even  her  grain,  came  to  her  from  France,  England  and 
the  Netherlands,  and  thither  went  her  gold  and  silver  in  exchange.^ 

Another  circumstance  contributed  to  the  export  of  the 
precious  metals:  Hapsburg  imperialism,  —  the  wide  distances 
separating  their  dominions,  the  universality  of  their  interests,  the 
expense  of  their  endless  wars.  While  troops  in  Italy  or  in  the 
Netherlands  were  starving  or  without  pay,  the  Spanish  Cortes 
was  inveigled  into  doubling  the  servicio,  ^  or  into  an  increase  of 
the  alcabala;  or  the  cargoes  of  the  plate  fleets  were  requisitioned 
for  the  needs  of  the  Crown.  Spanish  funds  were  used  to  maintain 
an  alien  empire. 

On  such  occasions  the  help  of  the  ubiquitous  foreign  merchant 
princes  was  again  indispensable.  The  arrival  of  a  rich  Indian  fleet 
in  the  Guadalquivir  did  not  in  itself  mean  the  instant  satisfaction 

*  Bernays,  "Zur  inneren  Entwicklung  Castiliens  unter  Karl  V."  {Deutsche  Zeit- 
schriftfiir  Geschichtswissenschaft,  i88g),  pp.  404  ff. 

"  The  second  [cause  for  the  decay  of  Spanish  trade]  is  the  residence  of  many 
Genoa  merchants  amongst  them,  who  are  found  in  good  numbers  to  abide  in  every 
good  city,  especially  on  the  sea  coasts,  whose  skill  and  acuteness  in  trade  far  sur- 
passing the  native  Spaniard  and  Portuguese,  and  who,  by  means  of  their  wealth 
and  continual  practice  of  exchanges,  are  found  to  devour  that  bread  which  the 
inhabitants  might  otherwise  be  sufficiently  fed  with;  and  by  reason  that  the  King 
of  Spain  is  ever  engaged  to  their  commonwealth  for  great  and  vast  sums  at  interest, 
he  is  their  debtor,  not  only  for  their  moneys,  but  also  for  their  favor,  which  by  many 
immunities  throughout  his  kingdom  he  is  found  continually  to  requite  them,  and 
amongst  the  rest  it  is  observed  that  there  is  no  Genoa  merchant  resident  in  Spain, 
or  any  part,  but  has  a  particular  license  to  transport  the  rials  and  plate  of  this 
kingdom  to  a  certain  round  sum  yearly,  which  they  seldom  use  really  to  do,  but 
sell  the  same  to  other  nations  that  are  constrained  to  make  their  returns  in  plate  for 
want  of  other  more  beneficial  commodities,  which  for  the  certain  profit  it  is  found 
ever  to  yield  in  other  countries,  is  often  preferred  before  all  the  other  commodities 
of  the  Kingdom."    Roberts,  The  Merchants'  Mappe  of  Commerce,  p.  165. 

*  Bernays,  op.  cit.,  p.  391.  In  Ferdinand's  later  years  the  servicio  was  50  mil- 
lions annually.    After  1539  it  was  150  millions. 


THE  PRECIOUS  METALS  1 79 

of  the  needs  of  the  moment.  Even  if  remittances  were  sufficient 
in  quantity,  they  could  not  forthwith  be  transported  as  bullion  to 
Italy  or  Flanders.  They  had  first  to  be  coined  into  escudos  and 
reals.  The  Spanish  kings  moreover  rarely  possessed  the  marine 
necessary  to  convoy  the  treasure  in  safety  to  their  distant  prov- 
inces. The  government,  therefore,  called  in  the  aid  of  the  great 
commercial  houses  with  international  connections.  Through 
them  it  was  possible  to  make  payments  abroad  with  certainty  and 
dispatch,  the  bankers  being  recompensed  with  cash  in  Spain,  or 
with  assignments  upon  future  revenues.^ 

Spain,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  perhaps  felt  no  immediate 
harm  from  this  depletion  of  her  coinage.  A  nonindustrial  country 
could  not  well  absorb  all  the  produce  of  the  American  mines. 
Moreover  her  stock  of  precious  metals  was  continually  being 
replenished  from  an  apparently  inexhaustible  source.  On  the 
other  hand,  this  American  wealth  did  serve  "  to  feed  an  impracti- 
cal vanity  and  further  unfit  the  nation  for  manufacturing  and 
commercial  life."  Everything  could  be  purchased  with  gold  and 
silver,  not  only  cloths  and  grain,  but  armies,  heretics,  and  the 
hegemony  of  Europe.  The  opportunity  for  conquest  was  offered 
by  the  Hapsburg  connection.  And  Spain,  by  the  loss  of  her  indus- 
try and  the  plundering  of  her  fleets,  paid  the  cost  of  Hapsburg 
imperalism. 

1  Ehrenberg,  Das  Zeitalter  der  Fugger,  pt.  iii,  cap.  3. 


k 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  ISTHMUS  OF  PANAMA 

In  September,  15 13,  Vasco  Nunez  de  Balboa,  looking  southward 
from  the  heights  of  Darien,  beheld  the  waters  of  the  Pacific  Ocean, 
and  revealed  for  the  first  time  the  existence  of  a  new  continent. 
Six  years  later,  Balboa's  executioner,  Pedrarias  Davila,  founded 
in  the  same  neighborhood  the  city  of  Panama,  the  oldest  surviv- 
ing European  settlement  on  the  American  mainland.  And  from 
Panama  as  a  base,  the  exploring  expeditions  crept  northward  and 
southward  along  the  shores  of  the  Pacific  in  search  of  gold  and 
adventure.  Especially  after  the  conquest  of  Peru  by  Francisco 
Pizarro,  the  city  grew  rapidly  in  importance.  The  shortest  and 
easiest  route  to  this  southern  kingdom  lay  over  the  isthmus,  and 
Panama  became  the  entrepot  for  the  exchange  of  commodities 
with  the  Old  World. 

The  portage  between  the  two  oceans  was  from  the  beginning  a 
matter  of  great  interest  to  the  Spanish  Crown.  The  instructions 
to  Pedrarias,  when  he  came  out  to  America  in  15 14,  provided,  not 
only  for  a  settlement  on  the  Pacific,  but  also  for  a  practicable 
road  across  the  isthmus  from  Santa  Maria  del  Darien  to  the  Gulf 
of  San  Miguel.i  And  later  letters  to  Pedrarias  and  to  his  succes- 
sors emphasized  the  necessity  of  facilitating  communication 
between  the  North  and  South  Seas.  Before  the  discovery  of  Peru, 
the  objective  was  trade  with  the  Spice  Islands  in  the  Far  East. 
In  1522,  a  ^^  casa  de  contratacion  "  had  been  set  up  at  Coruna 
for  the  organization  of  this  commerce;  and  the  difficulty  of  the 
voyage  through  the  newly-found  Magellan  strait  soon  turned  the 
Emperor's  attention  to  the  possibility  of  securing  spices  via  the 
isthmus  and  the  Caribbean.  The  idea  is  outlined  in  the  instruc- 
tions issued  in  May,  1526,  to  Pedro  de  los  Rios,  recently  appointed 
governor  of  Castilla  del  Oro.  Paragraph  5  reads  as  follows: 

*  Colecc.  de  doc.y  ist  ser.,  xxxix,  p.  325. 
180 


THE  ISTHMUS  OF  PANAMA  l8l 

Ansi  mismo  porque  .  .  .  uno  delos  mas  principales  medios  por  donde 
parece  que  puede  conseguirse  el  trato  y  comercio  de  la  especeria  que  cae 
dentro  de  los  limites  de  nuestra  demarcacion  es  trayendolo  y  navegandolo 
por  la  mar  del  sur  por  ser  tan  breve  navegacion  para  las  nras  islas  de  Maluco 
y  las  otras  partes  donde  lo  ay,  y  para  eUo  a  parecido  que  entre  tanto  que 
se  alia  estrecho,  que  combernia  mucho  hazerse  dos  cassas  una  en  la  ciudad  de 
Panama  en  la  costa  del  sur,  y  otra  en  la  costa  del  norte  en  la  parte  mas 
aproposito  y  ser  respondiente  y  cercana  a  ella  para  que  las  armadas  que  nos 
embiamos  y  embiaremos  a  las  dichas  islas  de  maluco  y  a  otras  partes  dela 
speceria  veniesen  a  descargar  en  la  dha  ciudad  de  Panama  y  alii  descargase  y 
se  truxese  la  speceria  en  carros  o  en  bestias  a  la  casa  que  estuviese  para  ello 
fecha  en  la  dicha  costa  del  norte  y  de  la  misma  manera  se  podrian  passar 
dela  costa  del  norte  a  la  dicha  Panama,  las  mercaderias  y  rescate  que  se 
ovieren  de  enbiar  de  aca  para  contratar  la  dicha  speceria  y  que  las  armadas 
que  se  despachasen  para  la  dicha  Panama,  y  todos  son  de  parescer  que  desta 
manera  se  podria  mejor  y  con  mas  seguridad  y  a  menos  costa  hazer,  y 
porque  esto  esta  importante  cossa  como  vecis  para  nuestro  servicio  y  para 
el  acrecientamiento  y  noblescimiento  destos  reynos  yo  vos  mando  y  encargo 
que  luego  como  llegareis  vos  y  el  lie.  Salmeron  y  nfos  oficiales  con  mucho 
cuidado  y  diligencia  como  la  grandeza  del  negocio  lo  requiere  .  .  .* 

The  coveted  trade  with  the  Moluccas  was  never  realized,  and 
in  1529  Charles  sold  his  claim  to  the  islands  for  ready  cash  to  the 
Portuguese.  The  isthmian  highway,  however,  after  the  opening 
of  the  silver  mines  at  Potosi  in  1545,  and  the  concentration  of 
South  American  trade  in  the  annual  galleons,  became  the  most 
vital  Hnk  in  the  transportation  system  between  Spain  and  Peru, 
and  the  goal  of  West  Indian  pirates  and  buccaneers. 

This  highway  long  remained  nothing  but  a  primitive  mule  path, 
largely  because  of  the  physical  obstacles  attending  any  more 
ambitious  design.  To  build  and  maintain  forty  miles  of  road  over 
mountains  covered  with  tropical  forest  and  through  swamps  and 
jungles,  in  one  of  the  deadliest  climates  of  the  world,  was  a  large 
order  to  demand  of  a  struggling  community  scarcely  two  decades 
old.  In  1528  the  project  was  still  in  the  stage  of  discussion.  The 
inhabitants  of  Panama  represented  it  as  too  costly  for  purposes  of 
trade.  They  suggested  that  goods  might  better  be  carried  to  the 
upper  reaches  of  the  Chagres  River,  and  floated  down  in  boats  to 
the  Caribbean;  and  urged  that  Nombre  de  Dios  be  moved 
farther  westward,  near  to  the  river's  mouth.    A  force  of  fifty 

*  A.  de  I.,  139.  I.  I,  lib.  i. 


1 82  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

negroes  they  deemed  desirable  to  keep  the  stream  free  from  float- 
ing timbers  and  other  obstructions.  The  Chagres  had  been 
explored  for  the  first  time  in  the  spring  of  1527,  at  the  direction  of 
Pedro  de  los  Rios,  doubtless  in  response  to  the  instructions  quoted 
above.  The  expedition,  entrusted  to  captain  Fernando  de  la 
Sema,  a  mariner  Pedro  Corzo,  and  a  notary  Miguel  de  la  Cuesta, 
returned  with  glowing  reports  of  the  possibilities  of  the  stream. 
Further  investigations  were  made  at  the  instance  of  the  Crown  in 
1 53 1  and  1533 ;  and  in  February,  1534,  an  order  was  sent  to  a  new 
governor,  Francisco  de  Barrionuevo,  for  the  expenditure  of  a 
thousand  pesos  de  oro  in  clearing  the  river  and  constructing  a 
warehouse  where  it  joined  the  sea.  One  third  of  the  expense  was 
to  be  borne  by  the  king,  the  rest  met  with  the  proceeds  of  a  tax  on 
merchandise.!  Whether  the  warehouse  was  built  or  not  is  uncer- 
tain, but  two  years  later,  in  December,  1536,  a  royal  decree 
empowered  the  municipality  of  Panama  to  erect  one  at  Venta 
Cruz,  or  Cruces,  at  the  head  of  navigation  on  the  Chagres;  and 
Venta  Cruz  continued  until  the  nineteenth  century  to  be  the 
principal  station  in  the  journey  across  the  isthmus.  Storage 
rooms  were  rented  to  the  merchants,  in  Philip  II's  time  at  one- 
half  peso  a  day,  and  the  income  of  the  city  from  these  rentals 
was  nine  or  ten  thousand  pesos  a  year.  In  the  seventeeth  century, 
with  the  decline  of  the  galleon  trade,  it  sank  to  a  third  of  that 
figure. 2  It  was  this  warehouse  at  Cruces  which  Sir  Francis 
Drake  destroyed  by  fire  in  1572,  with,  it  was  said,  200,000  ducats 
worth  of  merchandise. 

Efforts  were  also  made  from  time  to  time  to  repair  and  improve 
the  overland  route;  as,  for  instance,  in  1535,  when  the  king,  in  a 
contract  with  Bernardino  Gaona  and  Diego  de  Enciso,  allowed 
these  two  Spaniards  to  export  for  ten  years  an  unlimited  amount 
of  wool  from  Peru  to  Spain,  on  condition  that  they  contributed  to 

1  A.  de  L,  140.  3.  9;  ibid.,  Patr.  2.  2.  1/14,  no.  18. 

2  Ihid.y  Patr.  2.  2.  1/14,  no.  31;  Peralta,  Costa-Rica,  Nicaragua  y  Panamd  en  el 
siglo  ocvi,  p.  527;  Rdaciones  historicas  y  geogrdficas  de  Amirica  Central  (Madrid, 
1908),  p.  163. 

No  customhouse  was  ever  set  up  at  the  mouth  of  the  river.  All  goods  trans- 
ported across  the  isthmus  had  to  pass  the  customs  at  Nombre  de  Dios  and  Panama. 
Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  17,  par.  40. 


THE  ISTHMUS  OF  PANAMA  1 83 

the  maintenance  of  the  transisthmian  highway.^  Yet  when 
Francisco  de  Toledo  passed  through  that  region  in  1569,  he  found 
the  old  highway  still  so  bad  and  unsafe  as  to  occasion  considerable 
loss  each  year  in  life  and  goods.  The  negroes  kept  at  Nombre  de 
Dios  and  Panama  for  its  repair  were  of  little  use.  The  governors 
and  magnates  of  the  two  towns  were  concerned  each  with  their 
own  selfish  interests,  while  robberies  and  other  excesses  of  the 
wild,  cimaroon  Indians  were  a  constant  menace  both  to  travellers 
and  to  the  settlements.  Toledo  made  provision  for  the  surveying 
and  building  of  a  new  road  passing  through  Venta  Cruz,  at  such 
cost  as  the  king  should  determine;  and  in  conformity  with  his 
instructions,  imposed  a  duty  on  exports  to  the  amount  of  10,000 
pesos,  for  the  support  of  a  military  colony  on  the  highway  of  200 
Spaniards,  to  subdue  the  savages. ^  This  may  have  been  the  origin 
of  a  tax  called  the  "  averia  del  camino,"  which  in  the  early  years 
of  the  seventeenth  century  produced  an  annua]  income  of  several 
thousand  pesos.  In  1640  an  ecclesiastic  residing  in  Tierra  Firme 
still  referred  to  the  route  as  a  "  malissimo  camino,  peor  que  jamas 
yo  he  vis  to  en  todo  lo  que  he  andado."  ^  And  not  until  the  eight- 
eenth century  was  a  permanent,  paved  road  finally  constructed 
across  the  isthmus. 

There  were,  therefore,  before  the  age  of  steam,  two  ways  of 
transferring  goods  between  the  Pacific  and  the  Caribbean  Sea. 
The  overland  route,  eighteen  leagues  in  length  (twelve  as  the  crow 
flies),  was  used  only  in  summer,  the  dry  season;  the  other,  by 
way  of  the  Chagres  River,  in  winter,  when  roads  were  rendered 
impassable  by  the  great  rains  and  floods.    The  river  route  was 

^  A.  de  I.,  Patr.  2. 2.  i/i4,no.  24.  That  interesting  Sevillan  scapegrace,  D.  Alonso 
Enriquez  de  Guzman,  in  his  autobiography  describes  the  road  in  this  same  year 
as  follows:  "  I  travelled  across  the  land  to  Panama,  a  distance  of  18  leagues. 
For  the  first  seven  the  road  passes  between  two  high  ranges  of  hills,  densely  covered 
with  forest,  along  the  banks  of  a  river  which  was  nearly  dry  .  .  .  and  to  those  who 
travel  on  foot,  it  is  a  very  weary  journey.  For  the  last  eleven  leagues  the  road  is 
better,  though  there  are  several  rivers  to  pass.  There  are  three  inns  on  the  road, 
one  called  Capira,  the  second  La  Junta,  and  the  third  La  Venta  de  Chagres,  because 
here  they  disembark  from  another  deep  river  called  Chagres."  Life  and  Acts j  1518- 
^543  (tr.  by  Sir  C.  R.  Markham),  p.  88. 

2  Colecc.  de  Espana,  xciv,  pp.  225  ff. 

'  Relaciones  hist,  y  geog.  de  America  Central,  p.  78. 


1 84  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

longer,  but  also  less  difficult  and  expensive.  From  Panama  to  the 
Chagres  at  Venta  Cruz  the  distance  was  five  leagues,  and  from 
Venta  Cruz  to  the  river's  mouth  about  eighteen  leagues  more. 
When  the  Chagres  was  high,  the  transit  could  be  accomplished  in 
three  or  four  days,  but  at  other  times  from  eight  to  twelve  were 
required.  To  transfer  goods  from  the  mouth  of  the  river  to 
Nombre  de  Dios  was  a  matter  of  only  eight  or  ten  hours. 

The  Tierra  Firme  fleets,  till  near  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, carried  their  cargoes  to  Nombre  de  Dios.  But  this  port, 
situated  to  the  eastward  of  the  present  Colon,  was  never  more 
than  a  makeshift.  The  bay  was  shallow,  full  of  reefs  and  open  to 
the  sea.  The  town,  an  unwalled  settlement  of  about  150  houses 
built  of  wood,  with  the  usual  plaza  and  streets  at  right  angles,  had 
a  stretch  of  sandy  beach  before  it,  the  jungle  behind.  Fever 
raged  the  year  round,  and  women  were  sent  to  Venta  Cruz  to 
bear  their  children  and  rear  them  to  the  age  of  five  or  six.  Most 
of  the  buildings  belonged  to  citizens  and  merchants  of  Panama, 
and  remained  vacant  except  so  long  as  the  fleet  tarried  in  the 
harbor.  Between  fleets,  the  population  was  reduced  to  about 
fifty  households. 

As  early  as  1536,  Francisco  de  Montejo,  governor  of  Hon- 
duras, proposed  that  the  Darien  route  to  Peru  be  abandoned  for 
another  through  his  province.  Atlantic  ships  should  be  directed 
to  Puerto  de  Caballos,  goods  transferred  overland  to  the  port  of 
Fonseca  on  the  Pacific,  and  thence  carried  by  sea  to  Callao  or 
Guayaquil.  Merchandise  intended  for  Vera  Cruz,  Panuco,  etc., 
had  also  better  be  shipped  to  Caballos,  thence  to  Istapa  in 
Guatemala,  and  by  water  up  to  Acapulco.  This  Honduras  route 
was  recommended  as  safer,  and  the  port  of  Caballos  as  healthier 
than  Nombre  de  Dios.  The  idea  was  revived  some  twenty  years 
later  by  a  certain  Juan  Garcia  de  Hermosilla,  who  interested  the 
cabildo  of  Guatemala  City  in  the  project,  and  was  sent  to  Spain  as 
its  proctor  or  commissioner  to  push  the  matter  with  the  authori- 
ties there.  It  was  opposed,  not  only  by  the  interests  at  Panama, 
but  also  by  the  province  of  Nicaragua,  which  foresaw  the  ex- 
tinction of  its  own  trade,  and  suggested  that  the  route  pass  by 
way  of  the  San  Juan  River.  The  bundle  of  memorials  preserved 


THE  ISTHMUS  OF  PANAMA  185 

in  Seville^  is  only  another  monument  to  the  Spaniards'  gross 
ignorance  of  the  geography  of  these  regions.  To  carry  goods  to 
New  Galicia  via  Honduras  and  the  Pacific  was  about  as  practi- 
cable as  by  way  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Great  Lakes.  And 
the  physical  difficulties  attending  the  isthmian  route  bore  no 
relation  to  those  involved  in  the  passage  through  Honduras  and 
Guatemala.  Yet  it  appears  that  the  scheme  was  reconsidered  in 
later  years,  notably  in  1587  and  1606. 

There  was  another  port,  however,  destined  eventually  to  super- 
sede Nombre  de  Dios.  In  the  same  year  that  Hermosilla  pre- 
sented his  petition,  the  king  had  sought  information  from  the 
Casa  de  Contratacion  regarding  the  situation  and  general  advan- 
tages of  Porto  Bello,  lying  some  five  leagues  farther  west.^  And  in 
1584  he  ordered  the  older  settlement  to  be  abandoned  in  its  favor. 
Porto  Bello  stood  on  the  southeast  side  of  what  was  perhaps  the 
best  natural  harbor  on  the  Atlantic  side  of  the  isthmus,  deep  and 
easy  to  fortify;  but  it  proved  to  be  just  as  unhealthy  as  its  prede- 
cessor. The  removal  from  Nombre  de  Dios  was  not  accomplished 
till  about  ten  years  later,  owing  to  the  necessity  of  remapping  the 
road  from  Venta  Cruz  to  the  coast.  A  century  afterward,  Dam- 
pier  described  the  older  site  as  a  tropical  waste.  "  Nombre  de 
Dios,'*  he  says,  "  is  now  nothing  but  a  name.  I  have  lain  ashore 
in  the  place  where  that  City  stood,  but  it  is  all  overgrown  with 
Wood,  so  as  to  have  no  sign  that  any  Town  hath  been  there."  ^ 

The  city  of  Panama,  as  the  emporium  for  the  trade  of  colonial 
South  America,  enjoyed  a  vast  reputation  in  those  early  days. 
And  by  modem  writers  it  has  been  exuberantly  described  as  com- 
parable in  wealth  and  splendor  with  the  capitals  of  the  Orient. 
Such  is  scarcely  the  testimony  of  contemporary  visitors.  In  1575 
the  city  contained  some  350  or  400  buildings,  many  of  them  mere 
huts  and  all  constructed  of  wood,  even  the  churches.  There  were 
about  500  Spanish  householders,  the  greater  number  of  Anda- 
lusian  origin,  and  400  negroes.  The  town  was  the  seat  of  a  bishop- 

*  A.  de  I.,  Patr.  2.  5.  1/14,  ramo  24;  2.  5.  2/15,  ramo  15;  Milla  and  Gk)mez 
Carillo,  Historia  de  la  America  Central,  ii,  p.  234. 

^  A.  de  I.,  Patr.  2.  5.  1/6,  ramo  57.  '  Voyages  (ed.  of  1906),  i,  p.  81. 


1 86  TRADE  AND  NA  VIGA TION 

ric  (1521),  and  of  a  supreme  court  or  audiencia  (1538);  but  the 
cathedral,  besides  a  dean  and  a  precentor,  had  only  one  canon, 
and  the  three  monasteries  together  possessed  but  eighteen 
inmates.  Virtually  all  the  citizens  were  merchants  or  transporta- 
tion agents,  the  few  exceptions  being  engaged  in  agriculture  and 
ranching  in  the  surrounding  country,  or  in  the  pearl  fisheries 
among  the  neighboring  islands.  It  was  the  carrying  of  goods  and 
bullion  across  the  isthmus  which  provided  much  of  the  income  of 
the  city.  Some  maintained  stables  of  pack  animals  for  use  on  the 
highway  to  Cruces  and  Nombre  de  Dios,  while  others  had  large 
flatboats  on  the  Chagres,  navigated  by  negro  and  mulatto  slaves. 
The  merchants  were  reputed  to  be  wealthy,  but  prices  were  high, 
the  mode  of  living  extravagant,  and  the  standard  of  comfort  not 
very  great. ^ 

In  an  elaborate  report  of  the  audiencia  to  the  king  in  1607,  the 
wealth  of  Panama,  including  only  estates  of  a  thousand  pesos  or 
more,  was  computed  at  over  two  and  a  half  millions.  One  citizen 
was  worth  250,000,  another  200,000,  and  a  third  50,000.  The 
rest  were  all  men  of  lesser  means.  Cattle  ranches  in  the  country 
were  not  included  in  the  estimate.^ 

At  that  time  there  were  only  four  streets  running  east  and  west, 
and  seven  running  north  and  south.  The  extent  of  the  city  was 
487  by  141 2  paces.  There  were  now  five  monasteries  and  a  hos- 
pital, with  forty-five  monks  and  twenty-four  nuns;  and  372 
dwellings  large  and  small,  besides  a  hundred  or  more  thatched 
huts  occupied  by  negroes.  The  number  of  European  householders 
was  about  550,  of  whom  fifty- three  were  foreigners  (mostly  Portu- 
guese and  Italians),  and  only  sixty- three  of  Creole  birth.  Of  the 
3700  negro  slaves,  nearly  a  thousand  were  employed  in  the  trans- 

1  Fish,  fruit,  and  vegetables  were  more  plentiful  than  flesh,  but  all  were  dear 
except  beef  and  cocoa.  In  1590,  twenty  pounds  of  beef  could  be  bought  for  one 
real,  while  a  pound  of  bread  cost  two  reals  and  a  quart  of  wine  four.  Letter  of 
Hieronymo  de  Naberes  (Panama,  August  24, 1590),  in  Hakluyt,  x,  p.  176.  Mutton 
and  pork  were  very  scarce.  Flour  came  from  Peru  and  Nicaragua,  cocoa  from 
Guayaquil.  Most  of  the  wine,  too,  was  brought  from  Peru,  although  its  importa- 
tion in  competition  with  Spanish  wines  was  forbidden,  and  it  was  reported  to  be 
deleterious  to  the  health.  There  was  no  good  drinking  water,  what  was  used  being 
carried  for  a  mile  or  two  by  negro  water  carriers  or  by  the  slaves  of  the  citizens. 

*  Rdaciones  hist,  y  geog.  de  America  Central,  p.  177. 


THE  ISTHMUS  OF  PANAMA  1 87 

port  service.  As  yet  there  were  only  eight  buildings  constructed 
of  stone,  the  halls  of  the  audiencia  and  the  town  council,  and  six 
private  dwellings.  Twenty-nine  citizens  were  wholesale  mer- 
chants, twenty-one  retail,  and  thirty-five  owned  droves  of  mules. 
There  were  about  850  of  these  pack  animals,  the  largest  stable 
possessing  seventy-five. 

It  is  clear  that  in  thirty-five  years  the  city  had  grown  little.  It 
was  still  a  rather  small,  mean,  frontier  town.  The  judges  who 
drew  up  the  survey  of  1607,  nioreover,  complained  that  the  place 
was  declining  in  wealth  and  prosperity,  because  of  the  falling 
off  of  the  galleon  trade.  The  fleets  were  smaller  in  size,  and 
came  only  every  two  or  three  years  instead  of  annually  as  before. 
Brokerage  licenses  sold  by  the  city  in  1580  for  6550  pesos,  in  1607 
brought  only  4200  pesos.  The  office  of  town  crier,  farmed  out  in 
1575  for  2200  pesos,  in  1607  was  worth  only  150.  And  the  rents  of 
the  municipal  meat  market  had  dropped  from  700  pesos  to  200 
pesos  a  year.  Formerly  Panama  had  been  able  to  muster  a  militia 
of  800  foot  and  fifty  horse,  all  well-armed.  In  1607  scarcely  a 
third  of  that  number  were  available.  The  reasons  given  for  the 
decline  of  the  galleons  were  the  new  commerce  with  the  Philip- 
pine Islands  and  China,  and  the  increased  trade  between  Peru 
and  New  Spain,  European  goods  finding  their  way  to  Peru  via 
Mexico  in  order  to  pay  for  the  colonial  wines  exported  to  the 
north. 

The  harbor  or  roadstead  of  Panama  was  very  shallow  and 
exposed  to  the  sea,  and  the  tides  so  great  that  all  larger  ships 
resorted  to  the  neighboring  harbor  of  Perico,  two  leagues  to  the 
west,  the  cargoes  being  transshipped  on  small  sloops  to  the  city. 
The  roadstead,  moreover,  was  rapidly  silting  up.  In  1575  vessels 
of  sixty  tons  could  still  approach  at  high  tide.  In  1607  even  small 
boats  often  encountered  difficulties.  Perico  was  partly  enclosed 
by  three  rugged  islands  laying  about  two  miles  from  shore  in  the 
general  form  of  a  half -moon ;  and  it  was  to  this  neighborhood  that 
Panama  was  removed  after  the  destruction  of  the  old  city  by 
Henry  Morgan  in  167 1.  In  the  sixteenth  century,  from  forty  to 
fifty  vessels  called  there  annually  from  Peru  and  Nicaragua. 
Both  harbors  were  unfortified. 


1 88  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

Panama  did  not  change  greatly  in  appearance  in  the  course  of 
the  seventeenth  century.  Thomas  Gage,  who  was  there  in  1637, 
says  that  it  then  contained  some  5000  inhabitants;  but  the 
houses,  he  continues,  "  are  of  the  least  strength  of  any  place  that 
I  had  entered  in;  for  lime  and  stone  is  hard  to  come  by,  and 
therefore  for  that  reason,  and  for  the  great  heat  there,  most  of  the 
houses  are  built  of  timber  and  bords;  the  President's  house,  nay 
the  best  church  walls  are  but  bords,  which  serve  for  stone  and 
bricke,  and  for  tiles  to  cover  the  roof."  Wooden  construction  was 
probably  retained  also  because  experience  had  proved  it  to  be  the 
most  successful  in  withstanding  earthquake  shocks. 

It  is  tolerably  clear  that  the  city  never  gave  the  appearance  of  a 
great  commercial  metropolis.  Buildings  both  public  and  private 
must  have  been  of  modest  dimensions,  and  as  is  the  rule  in 
southern  Spanish  towns,  packed  closely  together.  We  are  specif- 
ically told  that  there  were  no  gardens  in  the  city.  And  there 
could  never  have  been  the  streets,  large,  beautiful  and  regular, 
such  as  the  Frenchman,  Frangois  Coreal,  who  probably  never  saw 
the  city,  described  them  to  be  in  the  second  half  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  In  modern  Panama  most  of  the  streets  are 
narrow  and  crooked. 

The  approach  of  one  of  the  great  fleets  to  the  coast  of  Tierra 
Firme  was  the  sign  for  an  outburst  of  unwonted  activity  among 
ojficials  and  merchants  in  that  region.  The  first  port  of  call  was 
Cartagena,  the  door  to  New  Granada,  and  one  of  the  richest  and 
best-fortified  cities  in  the  Indies.^  On  arrival,  their  commander 
or  "  general  "  forwarded  the  news  to  Porto  Bello,  together 
with  the  packets  destined  for  the  viceroy  at  Lima.  From  Porto 
Bello  a  courier  hastened  across  the  isthmus  to  the  president  of 
Panama,  who  spread  the  advice  among  th^  merchants  in  his 
jurisdiction,  and  sent  a  dispatch  boat  to  Payta  in  Peru.  The 
general,  meanwhile,  was  also  sending  a  courier  overland  to  Lima, 
and  another  to  Santa  Fe  de  Bogota,  whence  runners  carried  the 
news  to  Popayan,  Antioquia,  Mariquita,  and  adjacent  provinces. 
The  galleons  were  instructed  to  remain  at  Cartagena  generally 

1  The  following  description  is  taken  largely  from  The  Buccaneers  in  the  West 
Indies  in  the  Seventeenth  Century  (London,  1910),  pp.  16-19. 


THE  ISTHMUS  OF  PANAMA  1 89 

for  a  week,  but  bribes  from  the  merchants  often  made  it  their 
interest  to  linger  far  beyond  that  time.  To  Cartagena  came  the 
gold  and  emeralds  of  New  Granada,  the  pearls  of  Margarita  and 
Rancherias,  and  the  indigo,  tobacco,  cocoa  and  other  products 
of  the  Venezuelan  coast.  The  merchants  of  Guatemala,  Uke- 
wise,  sometimes  shipped  their  commodities  to  Cart^ena  by  way 
of  Lake  Nicaragua  and  the  San  Juan  River,  when  it  was  dan- 
gerous to  cross  the  Gulf  of  Honduras  to  Havana  because  of 
French  or  English  corsairs  hanging  about  Cape  San  Antonio. 

Meantime  the  viceroy  at  Lima,  on  receipt  of  his  letters, 
ordered  the  Armada  of  the  South  Sea  to  prepare  to  sail,  and  sent 
word  down  to  Chile  and  throughout  the  provinces  of  Peru  from 
Las  Charcas  to  Quito,  to  forward  the  king's  revenues  for  shipment 
to  Panama.  Within  a  fortnight  all  was  in  readiness.^  The 
armada  carried  the  royal  treasure  from  Callao,  and  touching  at 
Truxillo  and  Payta,  was  joined  by  the  Navio  del  Oro  with  the 
gold  from  Quito  and  neighboring  districts.  While  the  galleons 
were  approaching  Porto  Bello  the  South  Sea  fleet  arrived  before 
Panama,  and  the  colonial  merchants  began  to  transfer  their 
goods  on  mules  across  the  high  back  of  the  isthmus. 

Then  began  the  famous  fair  of  Porto  Bello.  The  town,  whose 
permanent  population  was  composed  mostly  of  negroes  and 
mulattoes,  was  suddenly  called  upon  to  accommodate  an  enor- 
mous crowd  of  traders,  soldiers,  and  seamen.  Food  and  shelter 
were  to  be  had  only  at  extraordinary  prices.  When  Thomas  Gage 
was  in  Porto  Bello  in  1637,  he  was  compelled  to  pay  120  pesos  for 
a  very  small,  meanly-furnished  room  for  a  fortnight.  Merchants 
gave  as  much  as  1000  pesos  for  a  moderate-sized  shop  in  which  to 
store  their  commodities.  Owing  to  overcrowding,  bad  sanitation, 
and  the  extremely  unhealthy  climate,  the  place  became  an  open 
grave,  ready  to  swallow  all  who  resorted  there.  In  1637,  during 
the  fifteen  days  the  fleet  remained  there,  500  men  died  of  sickness. 
Meantime,  day  by  day  the  mule  trains  from  Panama  were  wind- 

1  To  transport  the  silver  from  Potosl  down  to  Arica  on  the  coast  often  required 
as  much  as  a  fortnight.  The  voyage  from  Arica  to  Callao  generally  consumed  about 
eight  days,  and  from  Callao  to  Panama  another  three  weeks.  But  the  shipments  of 
bullion  from  Upper  Peru  to  Lima  were  probably  fairly  regular,  and  did  not  wait 
upon  the  arrival  of  the  galleons  from  Spain. 


I90  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

ing  their  way  into  the  town.  And  while  the  king's  treasure  was 
being  transferred  to  the  armed  ships  in  the  harbor,  the  merchants 
made  their  trade.  Gage  in  one  day  counted  200  mules  laden  with 
bars  of  silver,  which  were  unloaded  in  the  market  place  and  per- 
mitted to  lie  about  hke  heaps  of  stones  in  the  street,  without 
causing  any  fear  or  suspicion  of  loss.^  The  fair  was  supposed  to  be 
open  for  forty  or  fifty  days,  but  in  later  times  was  often  com- 
pleted in  ten  or  twelve. 

On  the  return  voyage  from  Porto  Bello,  the  galleons  first  sailed 
eastward  to  call  again  at  Cartagena,  and  thence  worked  their 
way  north  through  the  Yucatan  Channel  to  Havana,  and  back  to 
Spain. 

The  project  of  a  waterway  joining  the  two  oceans,  realized  by 
American  engineers  in  the  twentieth  century,  is  not  a  very  modern 
idea.  In  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  it  was  frequently 
proposed  to  the  councils  in  Spain,  though,  as  so  often  happened  in 
Spanish  councils,  it  rarely  passed  the  stage  of  discussion.  The 
discovery  of  the  Pacific  by  Balboa  stimulated  exploration  among 
Spanish  navigators,  who  during  the  following  decade  scoured  the 
coast  of  America  from  Labrador  to  Patagonia  in  the  hope  of  find- 
ing a  strait  to  the  waters  beyond.  Ferdinand  Magellan  was  suc- 
cessful in  1520,  but  the  passage  which  bears  his  name  was  too 
remote  for  those  seeking  a  short  cut  to  the  Orient;  and  thence- 
forth the  search  was  mainly  confined  to  the  isthmian  region, 
where  it  was  now  generally  recognized  that  the  oceans  lay  least 
widely  apart. 

In  1 52 1  Hernando  Cortes  sent  one  of  his  officers,  Diego  de 
Ordas,  to  explore  what  is  now  called  the  Coatzacoalcos  River  in 
the  isthmus  of  Tehuantepec,  the  narrowest  part  of  the  present 
republic  of  Mexico.  Ordas  reported  that  from  the  size  and  depth 
of  the  stream  he  suspected  the  existence  of  a  waterway  to  the 
other  sea.  No  such  passage  existed,  but  the  Coatzacoalcos  River 
was  later  utilized  as  part  of  an  overland  route  for  heavy  goods, 
and  has  been  more  than  once  suggested  as  the  location  for  a  canal. 
Two  years  later,  Cortes  was  directed  by  Charles  V  to  take  up  the 

*  Gage,  A  New  Survey  of  the  West  Indies  (ed.  of  1655),  pp.  196  fif. 


THE  ISTHMUS  OF  PANAMA  I9I 

quest  for  a  strait,  and  the  conquistador  entered  upon  the  business 
with  his  customary  energy.  Expeditions  were  equipped  to  explore 
both  the  eastern  and  western  shores  of  Central  America.  "  Come 
yo  sea  informado,"  he  wrote  to  the  Emperor, "  del  deseo  que  V.M. 
tiene  de  saber  el  secreto  deste  estrecho,  y  el  gran  servicio  que  en  le 
descubrir  su  real  corona  recibiria,  dejo  atras  todos  los  otros 
provechos  y  intereses  que  por  aca  me  estaban  muy  notorios,  para 
seguir  este  otro  camino."  ^ 

At  about  the  same  time,  Gil  Gonzalez  Davila,  a  kinsman  of 
Pedrarias,  in  searching  along  the  Pacific  for  the  elusive  strait,  dis- 
covered a  great  inland  sea,  which  was  called  Nicaragua  after  the 
principal  native  chieftain  of  that  country.  Lake  Nicaragua,  how- 
ever, had  no  outlet  into  the  Pacific,  and  although  joined  to  the 
Atlantic  by  the  San  Juan  River,  the  course  of  this  stream  was  not 
definitely  ascertained  till  1539,  by  Alonso  Calero.^  Calero's 
voyage  first  gave  the  civilized  world  a  clear  notion  of  the  canal 
route  which  has  been  the  most  serious  rival  to  that  finally  adopted 
by  the  United  States  government.  It  is  said  that  legends  survive 
to  this  day  among  the  Indians  of  Central  America  of  a  waterway 
which  once  existed  across  this  region  but  was  closed  up  by 
volcanic  action. 

It  was  probably  the  opening  of  navigation  on  the  Chagres 
River  which  suggested  the  possibility  of  a  ship  canal  through  the 
isthmus.  Alvaro  de  Saavedra  Ceron,  a  relative  and  lieutenant  of 
Cortes,  seems  to  have  led  the  way  in  this  ambitious  design.  He 
had  been  with  Balboa  in  Darien,  and  recalling  the  narrowness  and 
comparatively  low  elevation  of  the  isthmus,  is  said  to  have  pro- 
posed a  scheme  for  a  canal  at  that  place.  His  death,  however, 
on  the  celebrated  expedition  to  the  Moluccas  in  1528-29,  pre- 
vented his  bringing  it  to  the  attention  of  the  Crown.  How  daring 
the  project  was  can  better  be  understood  to-day  than  by  the 
men  who  originally  conceived  it.  In  fact,  until  the  nineteenth 
century,  few  of  those  who  in  turn  urged  the  construction  of  a 
canal  had  any  true  appreciation  of  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
its  consummation. 

*  Cortes,  Letters  (ed.  Gayangos),  fourth  letter,  Oct.  15,  1524. 

*  Peralta,  op.  cit.,  pp.  94,  728. 


192  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

Charles  V,  who  had  directed  Cortes  to  find  a  strait  in  1523,  and 
had  impressed  upon  the  governors  of  Castilla  del  Oro  the  need  of 
a  practicable  highway  across  the  isthmus,  now  adopted  the  idea 
of  an  artificial  channel.  In  a  cedula  of  February,  1534,  he  ordered 
the  local  governor,  "  tomando  personas  expertas,"  to  go  and 
examine  the  territory  between  the  head  of  navigation  on  the 
Chagres  and  the  South  Sea,  and  ascertain  the  most  feasible  means 
of  cutting  through  from  river  to  ocean.  He  was  to  estimate  the 
amount  of  money,  time  and  labor  necessary  for  the  undertaking, 
and  the  proportion  of  the  expense  which  the  American  provinces 
could  bear.  In  October  of  the  same  year,  the  report,  drawn  up  by 
Pascual  de  Andagoya,  the  Ueutenant  governor,  was  forwarded 
from  Nombre  de  Dios.  The  obstacles,  Andagoya  declared,  were 
insurmountable.  With  a  knowledge  of  the  conditions  realized  by 
few  of  his  contemporaries,  he  expressed  the  opinion  that  it  would 
be  virtually  impossible  to  construct  a  waterway  through  the 
isthmus  at  that  or  any  other  point,  and  that  the  undertaking 
would  exhaust  the  richest  treasury  in  Christendom. 

We  hear  of  no  further  efforts  in  this  direction  during  the 
Emperor's  reign.  In  1550  the  Portuguese  navigator,  Antonio 
Galvao,  pubhshed  a  book  to  demonstrate  that  a  canal  could  be 
cut  at  Tehuantepec,  Nicaragua,  Panarna  or  the  Gulf  of  Darien, 
and  a  year  later  Gomara,  in  his  History  of  the  Indies,  suggesting 
the  same  four  routes,  forcibly  urged  that  the  work  be  undertaken 
without  delay.  "  Sierras  son,  pero  manos  ay.  Dadme  quien  lo 
quiera  hazer,  que  hazer  se  puede.  No  falte  animo  que  no  faltara 
dinero,  y  las  Indias,  donde  se  ha  de  hazer  lo  dan.  Para  la  con- 
tratacion  de  la  especeria,  para  la  riqueza  de  las  Indias,  y  para  un 
Rey  de  Castilla  poco  es  lo  posible."  ^  Means,  however,  were  lack- 
ing, even  to  a  king  of  Castile,  and  Charles  V  needed  everything 
for  his  interminable  wars  against  France,  the  Protestants  and 
the  Turks. 

The  finances  of  his  son,  Philip  II,  were  no  easier;  yet  in  the 
first  decade  of  the  new  reign  there  seems  to  have  been  some  con- 
sideration given  to  schemes  of  this  sort.  In  1555,  and  again  in 
1556,  a  certain  Ruy  Lopez  de  Valdenebro  offered  to  make  navi- 
*  Ed.  Antwerp,  1554,  cap.  104. 


THE  ISTHMUS  OF  PANAMA  1 93 

gable  the  Desaguadero  de  Nicaragua,  as  the  San  Juan  River  was 
then  called.  The  project  was  referred  by  the  Council  to  the  Casa 
de  Contratacion,  but  apparently  was  never  accepted.  Nine  years 
later,  in  July,  1565,  a  definite  agreement  was  drawn  up  between 
the  Crown  and  Jorge  Quintanilla,  a  Spaniard  who  had  formerly 
held  a  judicial  post  in  Cartagena  de  Indias.  He  was  to  "  dis- 
cover "  at  his  own  expense  the  waterway  (paso  por  agua)  in 
Tierra  Firme  from  the  North  to  the  South  Seas,  and  within  three 
years  to  establish  one  or  more  towns  on  the  shores  of  the  latter. 
As  recompense,  he  was  designated  governor  of  these  towns,  and 
given  a  monopoly  of  the  new  route.  After  a  long  illness  in  Seville, 
Quintanilla  embarked  for  Cartagena  in  the  spring  of  1567.  In 
Cartagena  he  fell  into  other  difficulties,  and  the  contract  was 
never  executed.  No  mention  is  made  of  the  particular  region  he 
intended  to  explore,  but  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  it  was 
again  the  route  through  Nicaragua.  If  this  be  true,  it  is  evident 
that  even  in  1565  the  Spanish  Crown  was  unconvinced  of  the 
barriers  lying  between  Lake  Nicaragua  and  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

About  this  time,  the  policy  of  Philip  seems  suddenly  to  have 
altered.  Whether  owing  to  an  empty  treasury,  or  because  the 
power  of  the  French  and  English  at  sea  —  and  especially  the 
depredations  of  corsairs  in  the  West  Indies  —  made  him  fear  that 
he  would  be  unable  to  control  a  canal  should  one  be  constructed, 
be  decided  to  leave  well-enough  alone.  He  not  only  gave  up  all 
projects  for  a  waterway,  but  forbade  the  discussion  of  them,  and 
imposed  the  penalty  of  death  on  any  one  who  should  disclose,  or 
attempt  to  find,  a  better  route  across  the  isthmus  than  the  over- 
land road  between  Panama  and  Nombre  de  Dios.  Monopoly  of 
communications  with  Peru  was  now  more  important  than  a 
shorter  sea  passage  to  the  Pacific.  It  was  then  that  the  head- 
waters of  the  Atrato  River,  in  the  extreme  south  of  the  isthmus, 
were  discovered  to  be  comparatively  near  the  Pacific  shores,  and 
speculation  was  rife  over  the  possibility  of  cutting  a  channel 
through  this  region.  Philip  ordered  the  navigation  of  the  river  to 
be  abandoned  on  pain  of  death.  He  may  also  have  concluded, 
like  the  pious  Jesuit,  Jose  de  Acosta,  that  even  if  it  were  within 
himian  power  to  break  through  the  barrier  separating  the  two 


194  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

oceans,  to  attempt  to  correct  the  works  which  Providence  had 
ordained  and  disposed  for  the  framing  of  the  world  would  surely 
invite  disaster. 

For  a  generation  the  plan  of  an  isthmian  ship  canal  slumbered. 
It  was  revived  in  1616,  when  Philip  III  ordered  Diego  Ferdinand 
de  Velasco,  governor  of  Castilla  del  Oro,  to  make  surveys  for  one 
by  way  of  the  Gulf  of  Darien  and  the  Atrato  River,  the  very  route 
whose  use  his  predecessor  had  so  strenuously  forbidden.  Velasco's 
report,  if  ever  made,  has  been  lost,  and  nothing  came  of  the  mat- 
ter. Four  years  later,  a  Fleming  named  Diego  de  Mercado,  one 
of  the  settlers  of  Santiago  de  Guatemala,  wrote  a  "  relacion  y 
descripcion  "  of  the  Nicaragua  region,  and  a  plea  for  a  Nica- 
ragua canal.  Between  the  lake  and  the  port  of  Papagayo  on  the 
Pacific,  he  says,  ''  hay  cinco  leguas,  quatro  por  una  quebrada  6 
barranca  honda,  en  que  en  inviemo  entra  el  agua  de  la  laguna,  y 
una  legua  de  piedra  a  manera  de  pared.  Rompiendola  y  limpiando 
la  quebrada,"  he  continues,  "  podran  juntar  las  mares  de  Norte  y 
Sur,  porque  entrara  la  mar  del  Sur  en  la  laguna  de  Nicaragua,  y 
bajara  por  el  Desaguadero  al  puerto  de  San  Juan  de  la  mar  del 
Norte,  y  podran  subir  y  bajar  navios  de  poca  porte."  He  believed 
that  the  intervening  league  of  rock  might  easily  be  dislodged  with 
gunpowder,  and  offered  to  provide  that  the  labor  required  to  clean 
out  the  Desaguadero  should  cost  no  more  than  the  food  and  drink 
of  maintenance.^  Apparently  not  till  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century  was  it  understood  in  Spain  that  Lake  Nicaragua  lies  134 
feet  above  the  Pacific. 

From  about  1630  onward,  apprehensions  were  again  aroused  by 
the  activities  of  a  new  kind  of  sea  rover,  the  West  Indian  buc- 
caneer. In  1655,  moreover,  a  formidable  expedition  sent  out  by 
Oliver  Cromwell  seized  the  island  of  Jamaica,  in  the  very  heart 
of  Spain's  West  Indian  possessions.  Jamaica  became  the  buc- 
caneers' principal  headquarters,  and  served  as  a  base  for  a  series 
of  piratical  inroads  upon  the  provinces  of  the  Spanish  Main, 
culminating  in  the  celebrated  capture  and  sack  of  Panama  by 
Henry  Morgan.  In  April,  1680,  a  party  of  300  buccaneers  led  by 
Bartholomew  Sharpe,  after  plundering  Porto  Bello,  burst  across 
1  A.  de  I.,  145.  7.  7. 


THE  ISTHMUS  OF  PANAMA  I95 

the  isthmus  into  the  South  Sea.  For  eighteen  months  they 
cruised  up  and  down  the  Pacific  coasts  of  America,  burning  and 
plundering  Spanish  towns,  keeping  the  provinces  of  Quito,  Peru 
and  Chile  in  a  fever  of  anxiety,  finally  sailing  the  difficult  course 
round  Cape  Horn  and  returning  to  the  West  Indies  in  January  of 
1682.  They  had  forced  the  door  which  the  Spaniards  supposed 
was  fastest  shut,*  and  their  exploit  was  imitated  by  numerous 
other  bands  which  followed  after. 

The  magnificent  project  of  the  Scotchman,  WiUiam  Paterson, 
in  1698,  to  plant  a  colony  on  the  isthmus  of  Darien  and  establish 
a  free  trade  route  to  the  Pacific  —  a  scheme  which  should,  in  his 
own  words,  secure  for  Great  Britain  "  the  keys  of  the  Universe, 
enabling  their  possessors  to  give  laws  to  both  oceans  and  to  be- 
come the  arbiters  of  the  commercial  world  "  —  ended  in  failure 
in  1700.  But  Paterson,  in  a  pamphlet  published  a  year  later 
urging  a  new  Darien  expedition,  recorded  his  conviction  of  the 
practicability  of  a  canal.  If  interoceanic  communication  were 
"established,  he  wrote,  through  its  ports  would  flow  at  least  two 
thirds  of  the  commerce  of  the  East  Indies,  aggregating  no  less 
than  thirty  millions  sterling,  while  the  time  and  expense  of  a 
voyage  to  the  East  would  be  cut  by  one  half. 

The  idea  continued  to  be  broached  at  intervals  throughout  the 
eighteenth  century,  but  no  real  progress  was  made,  and  few  syste- 
matic surveys  were  undertaken.  Discussion  was  vague  and  aca- 
demic, and  the  plans  prepared  were  generally  quite  impossible. 
They  often  served  only  to  perpetuate  the  grossest  misconceptions 
regarding  actual  conditions  in  America.  In  1735  the  French 
astronomer,  Charles-Marie  de  la  Condamine,  accompanied  by 
several  other  scientists  French  and  Spanish,  measured  an  arc  of 
the  meridian  on  the  plains  of  Quito,  and  after  his  return  addressed 
a  plea  to  the  French  Academy  of  Sciences  for  an  isthmian  canal. 
But  the  expedition  had  made  only  a  superficial  examination  of  the 
ground.  The  viceroy  of  Mexico  in  177 1  directed  two  engineers, 
Agustin  Cramer  and  Miguel  del  Corral,  to  survey  the  Tehuante- 
pec  route.  They  found  a  place  where  they  thought  two  rivers 
might  be  joined  by  a  channel  to  form  a  continuous  waterway 
*  Dampier,  Voyages  (ed.  of  1906),  i,  pp.  200  f. 


196  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

across  the  continent.  But  Charles  III  was  not  satisfied  with  their 
report,  and  in  1779  had  the  Nicaragua  route  surveyed  more 
thoroughly  than  had  been  done  before.  The  government  was 
informed  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  build  a  canal  from  the 
Lake  to  the  Pacific,  and  this  conclusion  was  echoed  by  Manuel 
Galisteo  who  examined  the  same  region  two  years  later. 

When  Spain  declared  war  on  Great  Britain  in  1779,  the  latter 
dispatched  an  invading  force  from  Jamaica  to  San  Juan  de  Nica- 
ragua. Horatio  Nelson,  then  a  post  captain,  had  charge  of  the 
naval  operations,  and  in  a  letter  from  the  West  Indies  betrayed 
what  were  probably  the  aims  of  his  superiors,  the  control  of  the 
canal  route:  "  In  order  to  give  facility  to  the  great  object  of  the 
government,  I  intend  to  possess  the  Lake  of  Nicaragua,  which  for 
the  present  may  be  looked  upon  as  the  inland  Gibraltar  of  Spanish 
America.  As  it  commands  the  only  water  pass  between  the  two 
oceans,  its  situation  must  ever  render  it  a  principal  post  to  insure 
passage  to  the  South  Ocean,  and  by  our  possession  of  it  Spanish 
America  is  divided  in  two.''  The  plan  was  frustrated  by  the 
deadly  cHmate,  and  Nelson  did  Uttle  more  than  permanently 
impair  his  health. 

The  Panama  route,  meanwhile,  was  not  entirely  forgotten. 
A  Frenchman,  M.  de  la  Nauerre,  presented  a  memoir  before  the 
Academy  of  Sciences  in  Paris  in  1785,  recommending  a  ship  canal 
via  the  Chagres  River.  He  estimated  the  cost  at  one  million 
francs  ( !) .  But  he  had  never  been  to  America,  and  prudently  sug- 
gested going  there  to  study  conditions  on  the  spot.  Nauerre 
brought  his  scheme  to  the  attention  of  the  Spanish  ambassador, 
the  Conde  de  Aranda,  who  forwarded  it  in  April,  1786,  to  Flori- 
dablanca.  Of  the  author  Aranda  said,  that  he  was  "  un  torrente 
de  verbosidad  y  de  presuncion  de  inteligencia,  pero  instruido  en  la 
teoria  del  ramo."  He  did  not  think  much  of  the  scheme.  The 
Council  of  the  Indies  gave  the  matter  some  consideration,  and 
requested  several  of  its  members,  including  the  historian  Muiioz, 
to  investigate  the  outcome  of  such  projects  in  the  past.  And  it 
was  finally  decided  to  hand  on  the  papers  to  the  viceroy  in  New 
Granada,  where  engineers  could  draw  up  exact  plans.  In  April, 
1787,  however,  the  king  ordered  the  proceedings  to  be  indefi- 


THE  ISTHMUS  OF  PANAMA  1 97 

nitely  postponed.  An  analogous  scheme  was  being  discussed  at 
the  same  time  in  the  Sociedad  de  los  Amigos  de  Madrid,  by  a 
certain  D.  Manuel  Gijon  y  Leon,  a  native  of  Quito.  And  Mufioz 
declared  that  he  had  proposed  a  canal  through  the  isthmus  at 
Panama  seven  years  before.  With  the  death  of  Charles  III  in 
1788,  and  the  coming  of  the  Godoy  regime,  all  thoughts  of  a  canal 
were  banished  from  the  official  mind. 

Alexander  von  Humboldt,  when  he  visited  Mexico  and  Central 
America  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  expressed 
surprise  that  after  three  centuries  of  Spanish  occupation  there 
was  so  little  scientific  knowledge  of  the  physical  features  of  the 
country.  The  elevation  of  not  a  single  mountain,  plain  or  city 
from  Mexico  to  New  Granada  had  been  accurately  measured. 
Indeed,  it  was  largely  the  publication  of  Humboldt's  stupendous 
work,  the  Essai  Politique  sur  la  Royaume  de  la  Nouvelle  Es- 
pagne,  which  roused  a  new  interest  in  such  matters  in  Europe 
and  in  America.  The  Spanish  government  itself  was  stirred  to 
definite  action.  In  18 14  the  Cortes  passed  an  act  providing  for  a 
transisthmian  canal  capable  of  accommodating  the  largest  vessels, 
and  authorizing  the  formation  of  a  company  to  execute  the  work. 
But  Ferdinand  the  Well-beloved  and  his  camarilla  were  already 
on  their  way  back  from  France,  and  in  America  Spain's  colonies 
were  busy  securing  their  independence.  Spain's  last  chance  to 
seize  the  honor  and  advantage  which  such  an  undertaking  would 
have  brought  her  was  rapidly  slipping  from  her.  And  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  she  was  almost  the  only  nation  of  western  Europe 
to  have  no  part  in  the  negotiations  so  frequently  entertained  for 
the  construction  of  an  interoceanic  waterway. 


PART  II 
NAVIGATION 


CHAPTER  IX 

GALLEONS  AND  FLOTAS 

The  circumstances  which  attended  the  origin  of  the  system  of 
convoyed  merchant  fleets  sailing  between  Spain  and  America 
have  been  described  in  an  earlier  chapter.  Squadrons  were  first 
sent  out  in  1537  under  Blasco  Nunez  Vela,  in  1540  imder  Cosme 
Rodriguez  Farfan  (carrying  Vaca  de  Castro  to  Peru),  and  under 
Martin  Alonso  de  los  Rios  in  1542.  All  made  Nombre  de  Dios 
their  objective,  to  collect  the  gold  and  silver  of  Peru,  and  picked 
up  the  treasure  from  Mexico  and  other  provinces  at  Havana  or 
San  Domingo  on  the  homeward  voyage. 

Apparently  the  rule  establishing  the  periodical  sailing  of  fleets 
was  promulgated  in  August,  1543,  on  the  occasion  of  the  renewal 
of  war  with  France.  It  was  published  by  the  licentiate  Gregorio 
Lopez,  member  of  the  Council  of  the  Indies,  deputed  in  that  year 
to  make  an  official  "  visitacion "  or  inspection  of  the  Casa. 
Thereafter  only  ships  of  100  tons  or  more  might  carry  cargoes  to 
the  Indies,  in  fleets  of  at  least  ten  vessels.  Two  sailings  a  year 
were  provided  for,  one  in  March,  the  other  in  September,  each 
fleet  to  be  protected  by  a  man-of-war  equipped  and  maintained 
from  the  proceeds  of  the  convoy  tax  or  averia.  The  armed  ship 
was  to  accompany  the  merchantmen  imtil  they  separated  for 
their  respective  destinations  in  the  Caribbean,  and  then  from 
Havana  as  a  base  sail  after  pirates  among  the  neighboring 
islands.  Such  merchantmen  as  intended  to  return  immediately 
were  to  reassemble  at  Havana,  and  after  three  months  depart 
with  the  convoy  to  Spain.  Ships  from  San  Domingo,  still  one  of 
the  more  important  colonial  ports  and  lying  far  to  the  windward 
of  Havana,  were  permitted  to  return  as  a  separate  squadron, 
choosing  one  of  their  number  as  flagship,  which  was  to  carry  less 
cargo  and  be  more  heavily  armed  than  the  rest.^ 

*  N.M.C.,  vol.  xxi,  no.  13. 
aoz 


202  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

The  next  fleet  which  sailed  from  the  Guadalquivir,  in  Novem- 
ber of  1543,  conformed,  except  in  the  date  of  departure,  with 
these  instructions.  Its  commander  was  Blasco  Nunez  Vela,  who 
this  time  went  out  to  America  as  the  first  viceroy  of  Peru,  and 
with  him  was  the  licentiate  Sandoval  of  the  Council  of  the  Indies, 
on  a  mission  as  "  juez  de  residencia  "  to  New  Spain.  The  real 
business  of  both  was  to  impose  the  "  New  Laws  "  of  Charles  V 
upon  his  refractory  colonial  subjects.  Soon  after  Blasco  Nunez' 
departure,  the  Seville  exporters  realized  that  a  single  armed 
vessel  furnished  rather  inadequate  protection;  and  the  newly- 
created  Consulado  dispatched  three  other  ships  together  with 
material  for  the  arming  of  two  in  the  Indies,  to  reenforce  the 
fleet  on  the  voyage  back  to  Spain.  And  thereafter  when  convoys 
were  provided  they  were  generally  of  greater  strength  than  the 
ordinances  of  1543  required.  In  1552,  as  we  saw  in  another  con- 
nection, the  same  regulations  were  operative,  but  the  armada 
consisted  of  six  ships  instead  of  one,  four  ranging  from  250  to  35a 
tons,  and  two  from  80  to  100  tons. 

The  armada  of  1552  was  at  the  time  designed  to  be  the  last  of 
its  sort;  for  in  the  beginning  of  that  year,  probably  on  the  advice 
of  Captain  Diego  Lopez  de  Roelas,  it  had  been  momentarily 
decided  to  abolish  convoys  and  the  convoy  tax  altogether,  and 
compel  each  merchantman  to  be  sufficiently  armed  to  withstand 
attacks  of  the  average  corsair.  Two  naval  squadrons  were  to  be 
maintained  by  the  Crown,  one  at  Seville  to  guard  the  Andalusian 
coast  and  the  seas  between  Cape  St.  Vincent  and  the  Azores,  the 
other  at  San  Domingo  to  protect  the  islands  and  ports  of  the 
West  Indies.  Shipowners  and  masters  were  given  nine  months  in 
which  to  comply  with  the  king's  decree,  unarmed  vessels  which 
sailed  before  the  expiration  of  that  time  having  to  accompany  the 
armada  then  preparing.  After  the  nine  months,  any  ship  properly 
equipped  might  depart  for  America  alone. ^  The  Seville  squadron, 
in  charge  of  Juan  Tello  de  Guzman,  saw  active  service  in  the 
next  few  years,  pursuing  corsairs  and  escorting  treasure  from  the 
Azores  to  San  Lucar.  The  flotilla  for  the  defense  of  American 
waters  was  kept  busy  on  various  missions  in  Europe  (among 

1  N.M.C.,  vol.  xxi,  no.  31. 


GALLEONS  AND  FLOTAS  2O3 

others,  accompanying  Prince  Philip  to  England),  and  did  not 
sail  for  San  Domingo  till  1555,  then  under  command  of  the 
same  Tello  de  Guzman. 

The  intention  to  do  away  with  fleets  and  convoys,  however, 
was  not  long  persisted  in.  At  the  prayer  of  the  Consulado,  the 
Emperor  in  1553  issued  a  cedula  restoring  during  the  period  of  the 
war  the  semiannual  flotas.  They  were  now  to  leave  in  January 
and  September  respectively,  each  accompanied  by  four  armed 
vessels  maintained  by  the  averia.  The  idea  was  that  when  the 
convoy  reached  the  Caribbean  it  should  disperse,  one  of  the  ships 
sailing  with  the  merchantmen  bound  for  San  Domingo  and  the 
islands,  another  with  the  Tierra  Firme  ships  to  Nombre  de  Dios, 
and  the  remaining  two  with  the  Mexican  flotilla  as  far  as  Cape 
San  Antonio,  whence  they  turned  eastward  to  Havana.  As 
before,  Havana  was  the  port  of  reunion  for  all  homeward-bound 
vessels,  except  those  from  San  Domingo  and  the  other  windward 
isles.  Indeed,  Havana  was  becoming  so  important  in  the  scheme 
of  the  India  navigation,  that  in  February  of  the  same  year  the 
audienda  of  San  Domingo  ordered  the  residence  of  the  Cuban 
governor  to  be  removed  there  from  Santiago, "  por  ser  la  Habana 
lugar  de  confluencia  de  navios  de  todas  las  Indias  y  la  llave 
de  ellas.''  ^  And  as  Cuba  till  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century 
remained  very  poor,  its  agricultural  possibilities  unknown  or 
untried,  for  many  years  Havana  drew  its  life  and  prosperity 
almost  entirely  from  the  sojourn  of  fleets  and  single  vessels  on 
their  way  to  Europe,  supplying  fruits,  salt  meats  and  other  pro- 
visions for  the  crews,  and  providing  accommodations  in  the 
town  for  the  passengers  at  exorbitant  rates. 

The  prior  and  consuls  of  1554,  while  approving  the  new 
measure  as  promising  greater  security,  and  therefore  incentive,  to 
trade,  objected  to  the  size  of  the  armadas,  chiefly  on  the  score  of 
expense.  Each  armed  ship,  they  calculated,  would  cost  20,000 
ducats,  making  160,000  in  all,  without  coimting  interest  on  money 
borrowed.  Such  a  sum  they  pretended  to  be  at  a  loss  to  know 
where  to  find.  The  averia  alone  could  not  furnish  it,  and  since  the 
Emperor  had  sequestered  so  much  of  the  bullion  remitted  to 

*  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  vi,  pp.  339,  347. 


204  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

Spanish  merchants,  the  latter  were  unable  or  unwilling  to  lend. 
The  Consulado  suggested  instead  a  modification  of  the  plan  of 
1552 :  that  two  squadrons  be  maintained  by  the  king  to  cruise  for 
pirates  about  the  coasts  of  Spain  and  the  West  Indies,  and  that 
only  two  ships  of  war  and  a  small,  armed  dispatch  boat  or 
patache  accompany  the  fleets  to  America,  one  convoying  the 
merchantmen  to  Tierra  Firme,  and  the  other  with  the  patache 
the  ships  for  Vera  Cruz.^  Vessels  for  Hispaniola  or  Honduras 
should  follow  the  Mexican  contingent  till  in  the  vicinity  of  their 
respective  ports,  trade  with  these  regions  being  too  slight  to  war- 
rant a  separate  convoy.  The  armed  ship  and  patache  at  Vera 
Cruz  would  be  instructed  to  lade  the  treasure  in  all  haste,  within 
fifty  days  at  the  outside,  and  sail  for  Havana  to  join  the  vessels 
from  Nombre  de  Dios  and  elsewhere  for  the  voyage  to  Spain. 
Merchant  ships  at  Vera  Cruz,  because  of  the  time  required  for 
making  their  trade,  could  not  be  expected  to  depart  so  promptly, 
and  must  wait  in  the  Indies  for  the  next  armada.  The  cost  of 
such  an  enterprise  might  be  met  by  a  tax  of  2§  per  cent  on  ex- 

1  La  Villarica  de  la  Vera  Cruz,  at  the  western  extremity  of  the  Gulf  of  Cam^ 
peche,  the  sole  port  of  entry  for  European  commodities  into  the  Mexican  provinces, 
was  founded  by  Cortes  on  Good  Friday  of  15 19,  before  his  march  into  the  Aztec 
empire.  Removed  three  years  later  to  another  site  near  by,  it  was  transferred 
again  to  its  present  location,  opposite  the  small,  rocky  island  of  San  Juan  de  Ulua, 
in  1599.  Old  Vera  Cruz,  six  leagues  away,  had  too  dangerous  a  roadstead  for  ships 
by  reason  of  its  complete  exposure  to  the  violent  north  winds  prevalent  in  that 
region;  and  long  before  1599  the  narrow  channel  between  San  Juan  de  Ulua  and 
the  coast  had  served  as  a  harbor,  goods  being  transported  in  small  barks  to  the  city. 
The  Spaniards  began  to  build  a  fort  on  the  island  after  Hawkins'  visit  in  1567, 
which  was  later  elaborated  into  one  of  the  strongest  in  the  West  Indies.  The 
harbor,  from  a  quarter  to  a  half  mile  wide,  was  sheltered  only  by  the  island  and  a 
line  of  small  reefs.  As  the  water  on  the  land  side  drops  away  suddenly  to  a  con- 
siderable depth,  vessels  to  withstand  thQ  winds  were  made  fast  to  a  wall  by  iron 
chains,  bow  end  on,  with  anchors  thro^vn  from  the  stern  to  landwards,  being 
moored  so  close  to  the  island  that  one  might  step  from  the  prow  to  the  wall.  The 
city  itself  stood  on  a  flat,  sandy,  barren  beach  only  a  few  feet  above  the  sea  level, 
surrounded  by  marshes  and  sand  dunes,  and  so  extremely  unhealthy  that  many 
sailors  unused  to  the  country  were  stricken  there.  The  better  part  of  the  popula- 
tion, given  entirely  to  trade  and  maritime  interests,  remained  there  only  while  the 
fleets  were  in  the  harbor,  living  the  rest  of  the  time  in  the  healthier  town  of  Jalapa, 
higher  up  in  the  interior.  And  at  Jalapa,  after  the  unlading  of  each  fleet,  was  held 
the  great  fair,  to  which  flocked  the  merchants  of  the  country  to  purchase  at  exorbi- 
tant prices  the  commodities  from  abroad. 


GALLEONS  AND  FLOTAS  205 

ported  goods,  and  on  commodities  brought  back  whatever  was 
necessary  to  make  up  the  required  sum.^ 

Whether  these  proposals  were  adopted  or  not  is  uncertain. 
According  to  Veitia  Linaje,  a  royal  cedula  of  the  following  month 
(July  20)  prescribed  that  whenever  eight  or  ten  vessels  were 
ready  to  leave  for  the  Indies,  and  armed  according  to  the  king's 
ordinances,  they  should  be  given  license  to  depart.  Another 
decree  of  August  1 1  apparently  reduced  the  required  number  to 
six.2  Such  a  ruling,  however,  is  not  inconsistent  with  the  con- 
sulado's  scheme,  for,  as  often  happened  in  later  years,  two  of  the 
merchantmen  might  be  but  partially  laden,  and  armed  as  ships 
of  war. 

So  was  slowly  evolved,  toward  the  end  of  Charles'  reign,  the 
organization  of  the  treasure  fleets.  Alternate  schemes  were 
offered  by  the  Crown  and  by  the  merchants.  About  fundamentals 
there  was  general  agreement;  the  differences  affected  the  execu- 
tion of  details.  No  rule  was  very  rigidly  observed.  Although  to 
the  close  of  the  century  the  order  was  reiterated  that  no  vessels 
sail  except  under  convoy,  exceptions  were  frequently  made;  and 
single  ships,  doubtless  well  armed,  continued  to  cross  the  Atlantic. 
In  1554  there  were  at  least  three,  in  1555  at  least  six.  Sometimes 
one,  sometimes  two  large,  convoyed  fleets  sailed  in  the  year. 
But  in  1556,  when  a  five  years'  truce  was  concluded  with  France, 
there  seems  to  have  been  no  convoy  at  all.  Usually  each  flota 
consisted  of  vessels  bound  for  every  American  destination,  only 
dividing  into  two  squadrons  on  entering  the  Caribbean,  one  turn- 
ing southwest  toward  Venezuela,  New  Granada  and  Darien,  the 
other  supplying  the  major  islands,  Honduras  and  New  Spain. 
These  squadrons,  moreover,  after  1554  did  not  always  return 
together  from  Havana.  More  often  than  not,  the  Mexican  ships 
were  delayed,  and  arrived  at  Seville  later  than  those  from  Nom- 
bre  de  Dios;  while  other  vessels  returned  without  convoy  in 
groups  of  from  three  to  a  dozen,  and  at  any  time  of  the  year. 
Thus  in  155 1,  among  the  ships  carrying  royal  treasure,  three 
arrived  from  New  Spain  in  June,  and  one  in  July;  eleven  came 

1  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  iii,  pp.  513-520. 

2  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  6,  par.  2. 


2o6  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

together  from  the  isthmus  of  Darien  in  September,  and  one  alone 
in  the  same  month;  in  October  arrived  two  from  Honduras,  and 
two  from  San  Domingo  in  November.  In  the  following  year, 
there  was  one  from  Tierra  Firme  and  one  from  New  Spain  in 
February,  another  from  the  latter^ place  in  June,  seven  from 
Tierra  Firme  in  July,  three  from  San  Domingo  in  September  and 
one  in  December. ^  And  such  a  record  was  characteristic  of  that 
time. 

The  convoys,  too,  varied  considerably  in  size.  In  1557  there 
were  only  two  armed  ships,  the  capitana  and  almiranta;  in 
1558  there  were  six,  and  on  several  occasions  as  many  as  eight. 
But  for  some  years  after  the  French  war,  two  was  the  usual 
number.  And  they  were  not  always  employed  solely  as  ships  of 
war.  As  already  intimated,  they  frequently  carried  merchandise 
like  the  other  vessels.  But  they  were  the  largest  and  stoutest 
ships,  and  they  were  supposed  not  to  be  loaded  to  capacity, 
reserving  part  of  their  tonnage  for  the  accommodation  of  artil- 
lery and  soldiers.  By  an  ordinance  of  June  16, 1561,  the  capitana 
and  almiranta  comprising  the  convoy  were  to  lade  100  tons  less 
than  their  full  burden,  and  carry  at  least  thirty  soldiers.*  And  it 
was  the  freight  charge  for  this  space,  the  cost  of  arms  and  muni- 
tions, and  the  pay  and  rations  of  the  soldiers,  which  were  de- 
frayed out  of  the  proceeds  of  the  convoy  tax.  As  was  customary 
in  most  countries  in  the  sixteenth  century,  even  royal  men-of-war 
were  private  ships  hired  by  the  Crown  for  a  single  voyage  or  for  a 
stipulated  term.  But  under  no  circumstances,  according  to  the 
decree  of  156 1,  might  the  general  or  rear  admiral  of  the  flotas  be 
the  proprietor  of  the  ship  in  which  he  sailed.  This  same  ordi- 
nance again  declared  it  obligatory  to  depart  in  convoyed  fleets  on 
paiQ  of  forfeiture  of  vessel  and  cargo.  ^ 

The  royal  revenues,  and  often  bullion  belonging  to  private 
persons,  were  carried  on  the  armada,  and  on  the  largest  mer- 
chantmen.^  Before  1554  it  was  unusual  for  any  of  the  armed 

1  A.  de  I.,  2.  3.  7/8,  ramo  2. 

'  Fernandez  Duro,  Armada  Espanola,  ii,  p.  464;  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  6, 
par.  2. 

•  Whether  this  was  the  wisest  practice  or  not  was  sometimes  questioned.  J. 
Andrea  Dona  in  1594  urged  upon  Philip  II  that  bullion  should  always  be  shipped 


GALLEONS  AND  FLOTAS  207 

ships  to  proceed  as  far  as  Vera  Cruz.  Some  made  for  Nombre  de 
Dios,  the  rest  sailed  round  Cape  San  Antonio  to  Havana.  Mexi- 
can gold  and  silver  were  shipped  on  small  boats  to  Havana 
(earlier  to  San  Domingo),  and  there  transferred  to  the  Seville 
fleet.  From  1554  onwards,  however,  one  or  two  ships  of  the  con- 
voy always  accompanied  the  merchant  vessels  to  Vera  Cruz  to 
receive  the  king's  treasure.  The  change  is  strongest  evidence  of 
the  increasing  mineral  output  of  the  northern  viceroyalty.^ 

It  was  in  the  years  1564-66  that  the  India  navigation  was 
given  the  organization  it  retained  with  little  variation  through- 
out the  Hapsburg  era.  On  October  18,  1564,  appeared  a  new  set 
of  ordinances,  providing  for  a  separate  fleet  each  year  to  New 
Spain  and  the  isthmus  of  Panama,  one  to  sail  in  the  beginning  of 
April  (in  1582  advanced  to  May)  for  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  taking 
with  it  the  ships  for  Honduras  and  the  Greater  Antilles,  the  other 
departing  for  Nombre  de  Dios  in  August,  and  convoying  vessels 
to  Cartagena,  Santa  Marta  and  other  ports  on  the  northern 
coast  of  South  America.  Both,  according  to  these  regulations, 
were  to  winter  in  the  Indies,  the  Panama  ships  leaving  in  January, 
those  at  Vera  Cruz  in  February,  so  that  each  might  make  Havana 
in  March.  But  to  secure  favorable  weather  conditions,  they  were 
not  to  depart  thence  for  Europe  before  the  tenth  of  that  month. 
It  was  the  first  time  that  a  sharp  distinction  was  made  between 
the  flotas  for  New  Spain  and  Tierra  Firme;  and  although  occa- 
sional circumstances  made  it  necessary  for  the  two  fleets  to  sail 
together,  thereafter  they  always  retained  their  separate  character 
and  organization.  Each  was  conducted  by  its  own  convoy,  each 
had  its  own  general,  and  almirante  or  rear  admiral. 

on  lighter,  swifter  vessels  which  could  outsail  the  English  and  Dutch.  Bullion  on 
the  galleons  of  the  convoy,  he  maintained,  ran  the  greatest  risk;  for  it  was  the 
business  of  the  latter  to  fight,  and  even  if  the  issue  favored  the  Spaniards,  there 
could  be  no  assurance  that  every  galleon  would  survive  the  encounter.  Colecc.  de 
Espana,  ii,  p.  171. 

^  Toward  the  close  of  the  century,  two  armed  ships  were  sent  with  the  Mexican 
fleet  each  year  to  Honduras,  to  convey  the  king's  treasure  in  the  dangerous  passage 
from  Puerto  de  Caballos  to  Havana.  At  Havana  it  was  usually  transferred  to  the 
galleons.  These  "  naos  de  Honduras  "  are  sometimes  referred  to  as  a  separate  fleet, 
though  they  can  scarcely  be  regarded  as  such.  In  1633  they  were  suppressed,  and 
the  revenues  from  Central  America  thereafter  sent  to  Spain  via  Vera  Cruz.  Veitia 
Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  5,  par.  24  fif.;  Milla  and  Gomez  Carillo,  ii,  p.  272. 


208  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

The  times  of  sailing  did  not  remain  so  constant  as  the  above 
ordinances  might  imply.  Sometimes  the  Mexican  flota  alone 
wintered  in  the  colonies,  that  for  Tierra  Firme  leaving  San  Lucar 
in  the  beginning  of  the  year,  often  as  early  as  January,  and  return- 
ing in  July,  or  in  September  at  the  latest.  Or,  if  the  Panama  fleet 
got  away  late,  and  the  Crown  was  in  immediate  need  of  its  Ameri- 
can revenues,  the  general,  with  his  flagship  and  one  or  two  of  his 
best  vessels,  was  directed  to  return  at  once  with  the  royal  treas- 
ure, leaving  the  almirante  to  come  with  the  rest  of  the  fleet  in  the 
following  spring.  Such  an  arrangement  was  made  in  1579,  in 
1582,  and  frequently  toward  the  end  of  Philip  II 's  reign.  The 
August  sailing  was  the  more  usual,  and  had  the  approval  of  the 
cosmographers  and  pilots  associated  with  the  India  House.  It 
allowed  the  fleet  to  arrive  at  the  isthmus  in  the  healthiest  season 
of  the  year,  and  at  a  time  when  transport  across  to  Panama  was 
easiest  and  cheapest.  It  gave  merchants  at  Nombre  de  Dios 
sufficient  time  to  make  their  exchanges,  and  enabled  the  ships  to 
sail  in  the  spring  months,  regarded  as  safest  for  the  navigation 
back  to  Spain.  As  for  the  Vera  Cruz  fleet,  its  departure  from 
Seville  remained  fixed  in  April  or  May,  because  of  the  hurricane 
season  later  in  the  year,  and  the  dangerous  "  northers  ''  in  the 
Mexican  Gulf. 

Annual  sailings,  too,  were  not  the  invariable  rule,  although 
they  were  the  the  ideal  striven  after,  and  sometimes  achieved. 
From  about  1580  onward  a  year  was  frequently  skipped,  and 
toward  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  as  the  monarchy 
declined,  the  sailings  became  more  and  more  irregular. 

The  incurable  dilatoriness  of  the  Spaniard  also  contributed  to 
confuse  the  schedule  of  the  American  fleets.  The  Mexican  flota 
sometimes  did  not  get  away  till  the  end  of  June  or  even  August 
and  that  for  Panama  till  October  or  November.  There  was  always 
a  plausible  excuse  for  the  delay.  At  times  it  was  the  contrariness 
of  the  winds  in  the  difl&cult  port  of  San  Lucar.  Again,  because  of 
heavy  rains  the  roads  were  impassable,  and  carts  unable  to  bring 
the  fruits  of  the  country  to  Seville  for  shipment;  there  was  a  lack 
of  efficient  mariners  or  gunners ;  or,  owing  to  the  late  return  of  the 
convoy  with  the  fleet  of  the  previous  year,  it  could  not  be  got 


GALLEONS  AND  FLOTAS  209 

ready  in  time  to  conduct  the  next  fleet  on  the  published  date. 
But  generally,  we  may  believe,  the  underlying  difficulty  was  the 
absence  of  any  adequate  system  for  compelling  merchants  and 
mariners  to  conform  to  schedule.  Or  if  the  system  existed  —  for 
of  laws  and  rules  there  was  no  end  —  the  officers  of  the  Casa  were 
unwilling,  or  found  it  unprofitable,  to  make  its  operation  effective. 
Indeed,  in  a  cedula  of  1582,  precise  dates  were  set  when  the  capi- 
tana  and  almiranta  should  have  been  selected,  the  merchant- 
men careened  and  inspected,  the  fleet  laded  at  San  Lucar,  the 
artillery  and  other  equipment  received  on  board;  but  these  dis- 
positions were  rarely  observed.  And  when  in  1607  the  Council 
suggested  renewing  them,  the  oficiales  of  the  Casa  interposed 
many  objections. 

The  final  touches  to  this  maritime  organization  were  added  in 
1565  and  1566.  Till  then,  as  already  stated,  the  "  armada  "  was 
usually  composed  of  a  few  merchantmen  more  heavily  equipped 
than  the  rest  with  artillery,  gunners  and  soldiers.  But  the  avarice 
of  their  proprietors  and  captains  so  encumbered  them  with  goods, 
above  decks  and  below,  that  they  were  of  little  or  no  use  when 
occasion  appeared  for  attacking  corsairs  or  defending  the  fleet. 
In  January,  1565,  therefore,  the  decree  went  forth  that  thereafter 
the  flagship  or  capitana  must  be  a  galleon  of  at  least  300  tons, 
armed  with  eight  large  brass  guns,  four  of  iron,  and  twenty-four 
smaller  pieces,  and  carrying  200  men  in  crew  and  soldiers.  And 
under  no  circumstances  was  it  to  carry  merchandise,  unless  it  be 
the  cargo  rescued  from  vessels  lost  at  sea.  In  October  of  the  fol- 
lowing year,  the  same  rule  was  applied  to  the  ship  which  bore  the 
flag  of  the  almirante. 

In  addition  to  these  convoys,  there  still  existed  the  Armadas 
de  la  Guardia  de  la  Carrera  de  las  Indias,  naval  squadrons  which 
policed  the  waters  between  Cape  St.  Vincent,  the  Canaries  and 
the  Azores,  and  which  occasionally  accompanied  the  merchant 
fleets  to  the  West  Indies.  These  squadrons,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered, originated  about  the  year  1521,  when  the  danger  from 
French  pirates  first  became  ominous,  and  it  was  for  their  main- 
tenance that  the  tax  called  averia  was  originally  established. 
When  in  the  later  years  of  Charles'  reign  large  convoys  of  six  or 


2IO  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

eight  men-of-war  are  mentioned  as  sailing  with  the  American 
fleets,  we  may  feel  certain  that  they  were  this  Armada  de  la 
Carrera  de  las  Indias,  for  the  moment  drawn  upon  for  service  in 
more  distant  regions.  In  Philip  II 's  time  it  became  more  or  less 
customary  to  send  the  armada  with  the  fleet  that  went  to  Nombre 
de  Dios,  in  order  to  give  adequate  protection  to  the  enormous 
quantities  of  silver  bullion  exported  from  Peru  when  the  yield  of 
the  Potosi  mines  was  at  its  zenith.  In  the  seventeenth  century 
this  was  the  invariable  practice,  so  that  the  Tierra  Firme  fleet 
came  to  be  known  collectively  in  popular  speech  as  the  Gal- 
leons, from  the  type  of  war  vessel  composing  its  convoy.  In 
contradistinction,  the  Mexican  fleet  became  specifically  the 
Flota,  being  defended  only  by  the  capitana  and  almiranta  pro- 
vided for  in  the  decrees  of  1564  and  1566. 

In  the  asientos  for  the  administration  of  the  averia,  concluded 
with  the  Consulado  in  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  it 
was  usually  stipulated  that  the  armada  de  la  carrera  consist  of  six 
or  eight  galleons  and  several  pataches  or  dispatch  boats.  But  the 
accidents  of  war  sometimes  necessitated  an  increase,  while  occa- 
sionally in  times  of  peace,  when  the  comparative  safety  of  the 
seas  made  large  convoys  seem  an  imwarranted  burden  upon  com- 
merce, the  number  of  galleons  was  allowed  to  drop.  In  1595,  for 
instance,  an  armada  of  twenty  ships  sailed  to  the  West  Indies  in 
pursuit  of  Drake  and  Hawkins,  and  to  convoy  the  merchant 
fleets  back  to  Spain.  In  December,  1630,  again,  the  India 
Council  decreed  that  the  total  of  twelve  galleons  provided  for 
in  the  contract  of  1627  should  in  the  following  year  be  raised  to 
twenty.  And  as  the  wars  with  Richelieu  showed  no  signs  of 
abatement,  the  new  asiento  with  the  merchants  in  1633  required 
the  regular  maintenance  of  fourteen  galleons  in  the  India  naviga- 
tion, a  number  which  in  the  following  year  was  increased  to  six- 
teen.i  On  the  other  hand,  in  1655  the  armada  commanded  by  the 
Marquis  of  Montealegre  consisted  of  only  four  ships  of  war  and 
two  pataches,  although  the  treacherous  diplomacy  of  Cromwell 
made  such  reductions  a  dangerous  economy,  as  was  proved  by  the 
event.  In  times  of  great  peril,  extra  squadrons  were  frequently 
*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  4,  par.  13. 


GALLEONS  AND  FLOTAS  211 

mustered  in  Andalusia  or  on  the  coasts  of  Cantabria,  to  reen- 
force  the  galleons  when  they  arrived  at  the  Azores. 

The  number  of  merchantmen  comprising  the  India  fleets 
varied  considerably,  depending  on  the  state  of  American  trade, 
the  size  of  the  ships  employed,  and  the  security  of  the  seas.  In 
Biedma's  fleet  of  1550  there  were  eleven  or  twelve  trading  vessels, 
convoyed  by  an  armada  of  eight.  Two  years  later,  Bartolome 
Carreno  took  out  forty  ships,  twenty-four  for  Tierra  Firme  and 
sixteen  for  New  Spain.  Most  of  them  were  in  so  wretched  a  con- 
dition that  only  seven  of  the  former  and  five  of  the  latter  returned 
with  him  to  Europe.  Four  or  five  remained  in  America  to  engage 
in  local,  coastwise  traffic,  but  at  least  twenty  had  to  be  careened 
and  repaired  before  they  could  attempt  the  voyage  back  across 
the  Atlantic.^  In  general,  it  may  be  said,  squadrons  returning 
from  the  Indies  were  smaller  than  when  they  set  out  from  the 
Guadalquivir.  The  cargoes  from  America,  consisting  in  the 
begiiming  principally  of  bullion,  with  some  cotton,  sugar  and 
dyewoods,  were  less  bulky  than  those  sent  to  supply  the  needs  of 
the  new  settlements.  The  Seville  "  armadores,'*  therefore,  fre- 
quently bought  old  ships  which  could  be  trusted  to  make  one 
more  voyage  and  might  be  scrapped  on  the  other  side.  Farfan's 
fleet  in  1554  included  at  least  fifteen  merchantmen.  Of  these, 
eight  returned  with  him  from  Tierra  Firme  in  the  following  year, 
and  four  from  New  Spain  under  his  almirante,  Diego  Felipe.  In 
1556  the  same  numbers  comprised  the  fleets  from  Nombre  de 
Dios  and  Vera  Cruz  respectively.  In  1557  fourteen  merchant 
vessels  accompanied  the  armada  of  Juan  Tello  de  Guzman,  and 
in  the  next  year  Pedro  de  las  Roelas  came  from  the  Indies  with 
nineteen.  In  1562  Pedro  Menendez  de  Aviles  went  out  with  the 
extraordinary  number  of  forty-nine  ships,  thirty-five  from  Seville 
and  fourteen  from  Cadiz,  and  Roelas  took  twenty-eight  from 
Seville  in  1563.  Toward  the  close  of  the  century,  the  size  of  the 
fleets  varied  from  thirty  to  ninety  vessels.  The  following  is  a 
table  of  those  sailing  from  Nombre  de  Dios: 

*  N.M.C.,  vol.  xxi,  no.  37. 


k 


212  TRADE  AND  NA  VIGA  TION 

Year  General  Ships 

1585  Antonio  Osorio 71 

1587  Miguel  de  Eraso 85 

1589  Diego  de  Ribera 94 

1592  Francisco  Martinez  de  Leiva 72 

1594  Sancho  Pardo 56 

1596  Francisco  de  Eraso 69 

1599  Sancho  Pardo 56 

1601  Francisco  del  Corral 32 

1603  Ger6nimo  de  Torres  y  Portugal 34^ 

Throughout  the  greater  part  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  fleets 
dispatched  to  Tierra  Firme  and  the  Caribbean  seem  to  have  been 
larger  than  those  sent  to  Vera  Cruz.  In  the  seventeenth,  the 
reverse  was  more  apt  to  be  the  case.  In  the  northern  viceroyalty 
increase  of  population,  and  therefore  of  the  demand  for  European 
goods,  if  slow,  was  constant.  There  was  also  a  considerable  de- 
velopment of  agriculture;  and  the  inhospitable  shores  of  New 
Spain  offered  few  openings  to  the  foreign  interloper.  In  Peru 
society  seems  to  have  remained  much  more  stationary,  while  on 
the  Caribbean  coasts  Dutch  and  English  traders  were  beginning 
to  monopolize  the  commerce  formerly  confined  to  the  Seville 
flotas. 

In  the  seventeenth  century,  moreover,  the  whole  number  of 
vessels  in  the  American  fleets,  whether  bound  for  Vera  Cruz  or 
for  Porto  Bello,  was  as  a  rule  less  than  earlier.  This  was  a  con- 
sequence of  the  increase  in  size  of  Atlantic  ships,  while  trade,  if 
it  was  not  faUing  off,  at  least  showed  few  signs  of  normal  growth. 
In  the  time  of  the  later  PhiHps,  the  combined  tonnage  of  the 
Panama  and  Mexican  fleets  was  usually  about  10,000  tons,  of 
which  7000  were  assigned  to  New  Spain  and  3000  to  Tierra 
Firme.2  It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  under  Philip  II,  when  ships 
rarely  exceeded  200  or  300  tons  burden,  American  flotas,  even 
if  composed  of  40  or  50  vessels,  could  have  surpassed  this  aggre- 
gate tonnage.  If  there  were  fewer  ships,  it  was  because  the 
caravels  of  the  sixteenth  century  were  being  superseded  in 

*  Relaciones  hist,  y  geog.  de  AnUrica  Central,  p.  174. 

'  This  assignment  was  not  invariable.  Sometimes  the  tonnage  was  more 
equally  divided,  as  in  1624,  when  5500  were  set  apart  for  New  Spain  and  4500  for 
Tierra  Firme.    Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  25,  par.  23. 


GALLEONS  AND  PLOT  AS  213 

trade  by  the  more  capacious,  and  often  clumsier,  galleons  and 
"  ureas."  Indeed  the  tendency  to  build  larger  ocean-going  carriers 
outstripped  the  capacity  of  Spanish  harbors  to  receive  them. 
To  obviate  the  delays  incident  to  crossing  the  bar  at  San  Lucar, 
a  decree  of  June,  16 18,  excluded  from  the  American  navigation 
any  vessel  with  a  beam  exceeding  eighteen  cubits  and  a  maximum 
depth  of  more  than  eight  and  a  half.  And  a  later  cedula,  of 
December,  1628,  decreed  that  no  ships  should  be  constructed 
for  the  India  fleets,  either  merchantmen  or  men-of-war,  of  more 
than  550  tons.^ 

If,  however,  there  was  no  actual  decline  in  the  tonnage  of  the 
fleets,  it  was  not  increasing  in  proportion  to  the  growth  and 
development  of  the  colonies.  Not  only  was  the  influence  of  the 
contrabandist  and  of  the  Philippine  trade  already  severely  felt, 
but  the  gradual  extension  of  colonial  industry  probably  helped 
to  abate  the  demand  for  goods  from  Spain;  while  the  Crown, 
in  its  straits  for  money,  with  increasing  frequency  granted  per- 
mission to  single  vessels,  "  naos  de  registro,"  to  sail  to  America, 
to  the  detriment  of  the  regular  fleets.  Already  in  1582  the  Casa 
had  exercised  the  right  to  limit  the  number  of  merchantmen  in 
the  flotas  in  accordance  with  the  demand  for  European  mer- 
chandise in  America.  This  may  or  may  not  mean  that  trade 
was  then  beginning  to  fall  off.  It  was  just  as  likely  a  part  of 
the  monopolists'  policy  of  keeping  up  prices  by  understocking 
the  colonial  market.  In  the  early  years  of  the  following  century, 
however,  the  lamentations  of  pessimistic  observers  began  to 
arrest  the  attention  of  the  king  and  his  councillors.  In  1603  the 
archbishop  of  Seville  wrote  to  Philip  III  that  the  galleon  trade 
was  so  weak  and  failing,  that  if  the  Crown  did  not  speedily  do 
something  to  remedy  it,  in  a  few  years  it  was  likely  to  disappear 
altogether.2  So  strong  a  statement  may  not  have  been  unjusti- 
fied, for  only  two  years  later,  in  September,  1606,  it  was  ques- 
tioned whether  any  merchantmen  should  be  dispatched  with  the 
armada  to  Tierra  Firme,  as  that  region  and  Peru  were  under- 
stood to  be  abundantly  suppUed.    And  in  161 2  the  Marquis  of 

^  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  25,  par.  21,  31. 
2  Colecc.  de  Espana,  lii,  p.  565. 


214  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

Salinas,  president  of  the  Council  of  the  Indies,  admitted  to  the 
king  that  the  decay  of  trade  was  responsible  for  the  Hmitation  in 
the  tonnage  of  the  fleets.  Apparently  the  Mexican  trade  was 
more  flourishing,  since  Veitia  Linaje  tells  us  that  in  1608  it  was 
proposed  to  send  two  fleets  in  one  year  to  Vera  Cruz,  to  accom- 
modate the  demands  of  the  exporters  for  shipping  facilities.' 
Yet  in  1620,  while  the  New  Spain  ships  were  preparing,  on  news 
that  the  market  in  the  colony  was  very  poor,  two  of  those  elected 
for  the  voyage  were  excluded,  the  loss  to  the  owners  being  dis- 
tributed by  means  of  an  assessment  among  their  more  fortunate 
fellows. 2  A  similar  situation  occurred  in  1622,  and  in  1627.  As 
in  theory  the  vast  region  of  New  Spain  was  stocked  with  Euro- 
pean commodities  entirely  by  the  Seville  flotas,  only  two  explana- 
tions are  likely.  Either  prices  had  been  raised  by  the  monopolists 
to  the  point  of  diminishing  returns,  or  the  market  was  supplied 
from  non-Spanish  sources.  In  1636  the  Consulado  petitioned  the 
India  Council  that  no  merchantmen  at  all  be  sent  to  Vera  Cruz 
in  that  year,  for  Mexico  was  glutted  with  wine,  oil  and  manu- 
factures, and  the  mere  report  of  another  fleet  would  still  further 
embarrass  the  importing  houses  in  the  colony.  And  on  other 
occasions  in  the  following  decades,  the  Consulado  made  similar 
proposals,  either  that  the  Tierra  Firme  fleet  be  omitted,  or  that 
intended  for  New  Spain.  Sometimes  the  coimcil  in  Madrid 
heeded  these  pleas,  sometimes  for  good  reasons  of  its  own  it 
ordered  a  small  flota  to  sail  anyway. 

This  growing  disinclination  of  the  mariners  and  traders  of 
Seville  to  join  in  the  dispatch  of  flotas  to  the  New  World  may  be 
ascribed  in  part  to  the  circumstances  of  the  great  European  war, 
in  which  Spain  under  the  guidance  of  Olivares  was  endeavoring 
to  play  too  conspicuous  a  part.  The  Thirty  Years  War  was  a 
disastrous  piece  of  business  for  the  already  decrepit  Spanish 
monarchy.  The  State  was  utterly  exhausted,  the  fountains  of 
industry  dried  up,  the  treasury  in  bankruptcy.  And  the  maritime 
interests  of  Andalusia  especially  suffered.  The  owners  or  lessors 
of  ships  which  were  taken  over  by  the  government,  imable  to 

1  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  4,  par.  29. 
'  Ibid.,  par.  34;  cap.  8,  par.  3. 


GALLEONS  AND  PLOT  AS  215 

collect  from  an  empty  exchequer,  faced  entire  ruin;  while  the 
sequestrations  of  American  bullion  threw  the  calculations  of  the 
merchants  into  confusion.  Novoa,  the  historian  of  Philip  IV, 
writes: 

No  querian  cargar  si  no  los  aseguraban  el  no  tornados  el  dinero,  las  barras 
del  oro  y  de  la  plata,  y  que  les  habian  de  dar  y  pagar  lo  que  les  debian  y  les 
habian  tornado  en  las  otras  flotas  pasadas,  afianzado  tantas  veces  y  dero- 
gado  otras  tantas  promesas  y  palabras,  c6dulas  y  firmas  reales;  porque  si 
con  lo  que  habian  de  cargar  se  lo  habian  tornado,  i  con  qu6  caudal  habian  de 
prosiguir?* 

In  the  second  half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  decay  of  the 
galleon  trade  was  complete,  and  the  proud  commercial  aristocracy 
of  Seville  declined  rapidly  in  numbers  and  wealth.  Veitia  Linaje 
says  that  after  165 1  Mexico  was  no  longer  able  to  support  an 
annual  flota;  and  that  whereas  formerly  the  fleets  attained  to  a 
size  of  eight  or  nine  thousand  tons,  in  his  own  day  if  one  of  three 
thousand  could  be  dispatched  every  two  years,  it  was  considered 
a  miracle.2 

It  was  a  matter  frequently  argued  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
by  the  Casa  and  the  merchants,  and  in  the  Council  of  the  Indies, 
whether  the  galleons  of  the  armada  de  la  carrera  might  be  per- 
mitted to  carry  a  limited  amount  of  merchandise,  or  should  be 
reserved  solely  for  offense  and  defense  and  the  transport  of  the 
king's  treasure.  The  capitana  and  almiranta  of  the  New  Spain 
fleet,  in  spite  of  the  decrees  of  1565  and  1566,  were  frequently 
given  such  license.  One  of  the  principal  motives  urged  was  that  of 
economy,  the  Casa  either  hiring  vessels  outright  and  then  making 
what  it  could  from  the  freights,  or  securing  the  ships  at  a  reduced 
rate  with  the  understanding  that  the  owners  might  lade  a  stated 
amount  of  goods.  But  it  was  also  admitted  that  the  galleons 
carried  cargoes  suh  rosa  anyway,  whatever  the  letter  of  the  law, 
and  that  the  government  might  as  well  gain  some  benefit  by 
legalizing  the  practice.  In  the  sixteenth  century  the  concession 
was  never  made.  In  the  seventeenth,  the  policy  of  the  Crown 
fluctuated.   Thus  in  the  year  16 13  the  five  galleons  comprising 

1  Colecc.  de  Espana,  Ixxx,  p.  239. 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  14,  par.  11;  lib.  ii,  04?.  4,  par.  29. 


2l6  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

the  armada,  of  an  average  capacity  of  600  tons,  were  each  per- 
mitted to  carry  200  tons  of  cargo  "  de  registro."  And  this  con- 
tinued till  December,  16 19,  when  in  response  to  a  petition  of  the 
mariners'  gild,  the  privilege  was  apparently  withdrawn.^  The 
gildsmen  declared  that  the  galleons  were  often  so  overloaded  as  to 
be  compelled  to  transfer  part  of  their  cargo  at  sea  to  vessels  of  the 
flota;  and  that  the  competition  in  freights  deterred  private  enter- 
prise from  building  merchantmen  for  the  India  trade.  It  was  the 
latter  circumstance,  we  may  beheve,  which  weighed  most  in  the 
minds  of  the  complainants.  Whether  or  not  as  a  consequence  of 
such  representations,  in  1625  the  capitana  and  almiranta  of  the 
Mexican  fleets  were  again  forbidden  to  ship  any  merchandise 
whatsoever.  Yet  in  the  spring  of  1632  the  practice  was  renewed, 
at  least  for  a  year  or  two,  one-fourth  of  the  capacity  of  the  gal- 
leons being  reserved  for  freight,  and  the  factor  of  the  Casa  in- 
structed to  take  charge  of  the  business.  In  1636,  when  the  India 
Council  proposed  adding  a  surtax  of  i\  per  cent  to  the  12  per 
cent  of  the  averia,  to  defray  the  cost  of  new  galleons,  the  Casa 
countered  with  the  suggestion  that  the  money  be  secured  by 
seUing  to  the  highest  bidder  space  equivalent  to  one-third  of  the 
available  tonnage  of  the  armada.  Its  officers  explained  that  the 
concealment  of  merchandise  defrauded  the  Crown  of  its  customs, 
subjected  honest  traders  to  unfair  competition  by  lowering  prices 
in  American  ports,  and  opened  the  way  for  the  introduction  into 
Spain  of  unregistered  silver,  the  proceeds  of  such  traffic.  The 
objection  that  the  carr3dng  of  cargoes  rendered  the  galleons  unfit 
for  fighting  purposes,  and  destroyed  public  confidence  in  their 
efficacy,  they  met  by  the  assertion  that  so  long  as  the  gun  decks 
were  free,  a  cargo  in  the  hold  made  vessels  steadier  and  more 
amenable  to  the  helm,  and  in  nowise  detracted  from  their  powers 
of  defense.  The  Consulado  and  the  mariners'  gild,  however,  seem 
again  to  have  opposed  the  scheme,  and  in  that  year  the  permis- 
sion sought  was  not  gran  ted. ^  The  curious  feature  of  the  situa- 
tion was  that  both  parties  to  the  argmnent  freely  admitted,  not 
only  that  the  galleons  carried  goods  when  forbidden  to  do  so,  but 
that  they  carried  them  above  decks  where  they  were  readily 
1  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  4,  par.  15.  ^  jhid.^  par.  16. 


GALLEONS  AND  PLOT  AS  217 

detected  and  interfered  with  the  ship's  armament.  Yet  no  effec- 
tive measures  were  taken  by  the  officials  of  the  Casa  to  stop  the 
practice.  They  pretended  that,  with  the  necessity  of  dispatching 
the  fleet  promptly,  even  if  they  had  suspicion  or  knowledge  of 
fraud,  they  dared  not  detain  it  for  the  time  required  to  make  a 
thorough  examination.  Captains  sometimes  made  as  much  as 
100,000  or  1 50,000  pesos  in  a  single  voyage  from  these  clandestine 
freights,  and  from  the  sale  of  posts  on  the  ship  to  merchants  or 
their  factors.  There  is  no  doubt  that  throughout  the  seventeenth 
century  this  was  a  crying  abuse.  Alvarez  Osorio  wrote,  in  the 
reign  of  Charles  II,  that  the  convoys  were  often  so  heavily  laden 
that  the  greater  part  of  the  artillery  was  below  the  water  line! 

In  the  summer  of  1638,  the  idea  of  freighting  the  men-of-war 
was  broached  again,  this  time  by  the  India  Council  itself,  the 
plan,  apparently,  being  to  send  the  galleons  to  Porto  Bello  alone, 
without  any  merchantmen  at  all.  And  in  1643  the  rapidly 
diminishing  returns  of  the  averia,  owing  to  the  extension  of 
clandestine  trade,  caused  a  recurrence  to  the  project.  But  in 
each  instance  the  old  objections  were  renewed,  and  the  matter 
allowed  to  drop.^ 

The  captain  general  and  almirante  of  the  armada  de  la  carrera 
were  considered  of  superior  rank  to  the  flag  officers  of  the  flotas, 
for  from  the  beginning  they  received  their  appointment  directly 
of  the  king,  whereas  the  others  were  for  many  years  chosen  by  the 
jueces  oficiales  of  the  Casa.  From  about  1554  there  were  fre- 
quent disputes  over  this  latter  point,  the  opponents  of  the  Casa 
maintaining  that  its  nominees  were  incapable  and  Uttle  respected 
by  captains,  pilots  and  passengers,  as  a  result  of  which  many 
ships  were  lost  by  wreck  or  to  corsairs.  The  Casa,  on  the  other 
hand,  clung  tenaciously  to  its  privilege,  and  found  many  means 
of  persecuting,  in  a  petty  way,  officers  whose  warrants  issued 
from  the  Council  at  Madrid.  So  Pedro  Menendez  de  Aviles,  who 

^  By  a  cedula  of  June,  1644,  however,  sailors  and  soldiers  serving  in  the  armadas 
were  conceded  the  privilege  of  embarking  free  a  certain  number  of  jars  of  wine  for 
sale  in  America,  ranging  from  250  jars  for  the  pilot  to  10  jars  apiece  for  the  "grumetes  " 
or  apprentices.  The  proceeds  in  silver  were  exempt  from  the  payment  of  averia. 
Veitia  Linaje,  Ub.  ii,  cap.  1 2,  par.  20. 


2l8  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

was  probably  the  first  so  appointed,  found  to  his  cost.^  The 
controversy  seems  to  have  been  frequently  between  Andalusian 
seamen  and  those  from  other  provinces  of  the  kingdom.  By  the 
seventeenth  century,  however,  all  generals  and  almirantes  were 
nominees  of  the  Crown.  The  Junta  de  Guerra  of  the  Council  of 
the  Indies  presented  lists  of  eligible  persons  to  the  king,  from 
which  the  latter  made  his  choice. ^ 

There  were  two  sorts  of  captains  general,  "  proprietarios  "  or 
those  appointed  to  the  title  and  dignity  for  life,  and  those  selected 
for  a  single  voyage.  It  appears  that  like  all  other  Spanish  officials 
they  usually  bought  their  posts,  or,  in  the  later  decay  of  the 
monarchy,  advanced  to  the  Crown  a  sum  of  money,  100,000  or 
150,000  pesos,  to  be  repaid  in  the  Indies,  generally  at  8  per  cent  in- 
terest. After  it  became  customary  for  the  armada  de  la  carrera  to 
accompany  the  Tierra  Firme  flota  to  the  isthmus  of  Panama,  there 
were  four  flag  officers  in  the  fleet,  two  for  the  armada  and  two  for 
the  merchantmen,  a  superfluity  which  was  not  corrected  till  1647, 
when  appointments  to  the  flota  were  discontinued.  In  1 583  was  in- 
troduced the  practiceof  sending  with  each  fleet  two  "entretenidos," 
or  aspirants  to  the  command,  one  with  the  general  and  another 
with  the  almirante,  to  gain  experience  of  their  future  duties.' 

The  generals  and  admirals  took  oath  of  homage  and  fidelity 
before  the  Council  of  the  Indies,  if  they  happened  to  be  in  Madrid, 
otherwise  before  the  president  and  jueces  of  the  Casa.  In  any 
case,  they  had  to  present  themselves  at  once  in  Seville  with  their 
warrants  and  instructions,  where  they  unfurled  their  standards 
in  the  harbor,  and  entered  upon  the  multifarious  duties  connected 
with  the  outfitting  of  the  fleets.  Recruiting  stands,  with  piper 
and  drummer,  were  set  up  for  the  enlistment  of  mariners  and 
soldiers,  men  between  the  ages  of  twenty  and  fifty  and  unrelated 

1  Ruidiaz  y  Caravia,  La  Florida;  su  conquista  y  colonizacidn  por  Pedro  MenSndez 
de  Aviles,  ii,  pp.  34-59- 

'  B.  M.,  Egerton  Mss.  320.  From  1625,  at  the  suggestion  of  the  Junta,  com- 
manders who  had  served  in  the  India  navigation,  and  were  awaiting  another  ap- 
pointment, were  detailed  to  serve  as  supernumeraries  with  the  captain  general  of 
the  royal  navy  (Armada  del  Mar  Oc6ano) ,  until  otherwise  provided  for. 

»  When  a  viceroy  of  New  Spain  or  Peru  sailed  on  the  fleet,  the  king  usually  gave 
him  the  rank  of  captain  general  for  the  voyage,  but  the  office  was  purely  an  hon- 
orary one. 


GALLEONS  AND  PLOT  AS  219 

in  any  way  to  the  officers  of  the  Casa.  The  general  saw  to  it 
that  the  gunners  were  of  nautical  experience,  and  examined  by 
the  captain  of  artillery;  that  passengers  were  inscribed  on  the 
registers,  carried  the  requisite  arms,  and  conformed  to  all  the 
regulations  governing  their  passage;  *  that  each  ship  sailed  with 
sufficient  provisions  for  the  voyage,  and  carried  a  chaplain  to  hear 
confession  and  comfort  the  sick;  that  charts,  astrolabes,  etc., 
were  inspected  and  sealed;  in  short,  that  all  obligations  touching 
the  preparation  and  armament  of  the  galleons  under  his  com- 
mand were  strictly  observed.  In  conference  with  the  almirante 
and  the  pilot  major  of  the  fleet,  he  also  drew  up  sailing  instruc- 
tions, to  be  distributed  to  the  captains  and  pilots  on  the  day  of 
departure.  Just  before  setting  out,  word  was  sent  to  Cadiz  that 
ships  laded  there  should  be  ready  to  join  the  fleet  as  it  dropped 
down  the  Andalusian  coast.  And  in  the  sixteenth  century,  when 
Canary  boats  were  compelled  to  sail  in  company  of  the  Seville 
flotas,  a  small  vessel  was  dispatched  to  the  islands  to  warn 
merchants  to  be  prepared  at  the  fleet's  approach.^ 

A  number  of  appointments  in  the  armada  were  within  the  gift 
of  the  general:  the  chaplain  of  each  galleon,  the  master  car- 
penter and  the  master  calker,  the  physician  (a  post  first  created, 
apparently,  in  1593),  the  barber-surgeons,  the  commanders  of 
pataches  or  dispatch  boats  (in  earlier  times  often  those  of  mer- 
chant ships  as  well),  and  the  quartermasters  and  other  petty 
officials  of  the  flagship.  Petty  officers  of  the  other  galleons  were 
nominated  by  the  respective  captains. 

The  armada  also  carried  a  regiment  of  infantry,  called  the 
"  tercio  de  galeones,"  commanded  by  a  "  gobemador  "  appointed 
by  the  king,  and  distributed  by  companies  among  the  fleet.  In 
the  seventeenth  century,  its  officers  often  secured  their  posts  in 
return  for  loans  of  money  to  the  Crown,  to  be  repaid  in  the  Indies. 

*  Passengers  on  the  armadas  had  to  take  along  their  own  rations  for  the  voyage, 
captains  and  other  officers  being  forbidden  to  maintain  them  at  their  table.  It  is 
very  doubtful  whether  the  rule  was  enforced. 

'  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  i,  par.  9-1 1,  14,  15,  19,  20;  Fernandez  Duro,  Ar- 
mada Espanoldj  ii,  pp.  206  f. 

The  general  of  the  galleons  exercised  complete  authority  in  his  fleet  from  the 
moment  of  induction  into  office;  the  general  of  a  flota  only  after  departure  from 
San  Lucar  or  Cadiz,  the  authority  meanwhile  lying  with  the  Casa  de  Contrataci6n. 


220  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

The  gobemador  had  the  next  choice  of  galleon  after  the  general 
and  the  almirante,  his  vessel  being  usually  called  the  "  gobiemo." 
Veitia  Linaje  says  that  this  regiment  was  for  many  years  one  of 
the  most  distinguished  in  the  royal  service,  until  the  government 
in  1634  ordered  the  special  quarters  and  pay  of  the  soldiers  to 
be  discontinued,  and  the  regiment  joined  to  the  garrison  at  Cadiz. 
It  lost,  consequently,  its  distinctive  character  and  corporate 
tradition,  and  when  the  muster  was  called  for  the  next  voyage, 
many  of  the  former  members  had  scattered  and  were  not  to  be 
found. 1  Two  companies  of  infantry  were  generally  assigned  to 
the  Mexican  fleet,  sometimes  recruited  for  the  occasion,  some- 
times drawn  from  the  Cadiz  garrison.  No  passengers  might  be 
enrolled  as  soldiers,  on  pain  of  a  heavy  fine.  But  occasionally, 
owing  to  lack  of  men,  the  rule  was  suspended,  especially  for  the 
voyage  back  from  America.  Persons  so  enlisted  received  rations, 
but  no  pay. 

Each  fleet  carried  a  veedor  (on  the  galleons  called  the  veedor 
general),  a  sort  of  king's  attorney,  whose  business  it  was  to  see 
that  all  laws  and  ordinances  respecting  the  management  and 
governance  of  the  fleet  were  observed,  and  that  each  man  per- 
formed his  duties,  from  the  captain  general  down  to  the  least  of 
the  commissioned  officers.  Every  detail  of  the  daily  life  of  the 
ships,  whether  at  sea  or  in  port,  was  supposed  to  come  under  his 
eye.  He  was  at  the  general's  side  during  the  inspections  and 
musters,  a  sort  of  royal  watchdog  for  all  occasions.  He  was 
appointed  by  the  king  on  the  nomination  of  the  Consulado,  was 
immune  from  arrest  or  judicial  process,  and  like  the  general 
provided  with  elaborate  instructions  from  the  council  or  the  Casa 
de  Contratacion. 

Other  ofl&cers  were  a  contador,  or  comptroller  general,  on  each 
armada  (not  on  the  flotas) ;  an  alguacil  mayor  or  chief  constable 
for  each  ship;  gunners  and  a  captain  of  artillery;  maestres  de 
plata,  entrusted  with  the  coin,  bullion  and  precious  stones  both  of 
the  king  and  of  private  persons;  ^  stewards,  or  maestres  de 

1  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  2,  par.  2,  3. 

2  Maestres  de  plata  were  apparently  first  appointed  near  the  close  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  when  it  was  no  longer  customary  to  ship  bullion  on  merchant  vessels. 
Before  that  time  gold  and  silver  had  been  entrusted  with  other  registered  articles 


GALLEONS  AND  PLOT  AS  221 

raciones,  who  had  charge  of  the  provisions,  powder  and  muni- 
tions, together  with  their  assistants,  the  clerk  of  rations,  water 
bailiff,  and  dispenser;  quartermasters  and  their  assistants;  a 
clerk  or  notary  for  each  vessel,  and  a  notary  general  for  the 
entire  fleet;  apothecaries,  carpenters,  calkers,  and  coopers;  a 
diver  on  the  flagship  and  on  the  almiranta;  four  trumpeters  for 
the  general;  and  eight  gen tlemen-in- waiting,  at  the  discretion  of 
the  general,  distributed  among  the  ships  of  the  armada.* 

After  1605  the  final  authority  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  the 
preparation  and  dispatch  of  the  American  fleets  was  vested  in 
the  Junta  de  Guerra  y  Armadas  de  Indias,  a  committee  of  the 
Council,  and  the  nominations  to  the  principal  posts  either 
originated  in  it,  or  were  made  to  it  by  the  president  and  judges  of 
the  Casa.  All  commissioned  ofiScers,  before  admission  to  their 
places,  had  to  give  security  to  the  Casa  for  the  faithful  per- 
formance of  their  duties.  Apparently  till  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  this  was  fij^ed  at  double  the  year's  salary. 

In  1647  a  schedule  was  drawn  up  as  follows: 

ducats  silver 

General  de  galeones 8,000 

Almirante  de  galeones 4,000 

General  de  Acta 4,000 

Almirante  de  Acta 3,000 

Capitdn,  veedor,  contador,  gobemador  del  tercio,  maestre 

de  plata 2,000 

Sargento  mayor  (military  engineer) 1,500 

Piloto  mayor,  contramaestre,  alguacil  mayor,  escribano ....  1,000 

Piloto,  alf^rez,  escribano  de  raciones,  dispenser© 500 

Alguacil  de  agua 400 

Medico,  cirujano 300  * 

to  private  ship  captains.  The  maestres  were  usually  men  of  considerable  means 
and  reputation.  In  the  beginning  chosen  by  the  general  of  the  fleet,  after  1592 
their  selection  devolved  upon  the  Casa,  and  after  1615  upon  the  Council  of  the 
Indies.   They  gave  a  special  bond  of  25,000  ducats  on  entering  upon  their  duties. 

At  first  these  oflScials  received  i  %  of  the  treasure  given  over  to  their  care.  In 
the  seventeenth  century,  the  schedule  was:  i  %  for  coin;  f  %  for  buUion  from  New 
Spain;  i  peso  de  ocho  of  every  100  pesos  de  minas  of  Peruvian  bullion;  i  %  of  all 
royal  treasure  from  New  Spain;  and  90  maravedis  for  every  bar  of  50  marcs  weight 
sent  to  the  king  from  the  southern  viceroyalty. 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  27;  lib.  ii,  caps.  2,  3,  9,  10,  23,  24.  The  notaries  and 
notaries-general  were  all  nominated  by  the  Consulado  and  approved  by  the  Casa. 

'  Ibid.,  lib.  ii,  cap.  i,  par.  8. 


222  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

As  the  fleet  sailed  out  from  Cadiz  or  San  Lucar,  the  flagship  led 
the  van,  the  other  vessels  keeping  its  standard  in  sight  by  day, 
and  following  its  great  ship's  lantern  by  night.  Instructions  of 
1573  ordered  the  merchantmen  to  sail  in  battle  formation  (orden 
de  batalla),  probably  meaning  in  several  ranks  arranged  in  the 
general  shape  of  a  half-moon.  The  almiranta  brought  up  the 
rear,  while  the  rest  of  the  armed  convoy  kept  to  the  windward,  so 
as  to  be  able  to  come  to  the  assistance  of  any  in  danger  or  dis- 
tress. The  almiranta  was  instructed  to  speak  with  the  flagship 
twice  each  day,  and  both  were  to  take  daily  count  of  the  ships, 
awaiting  those  which  had  dropped  behind,  and  seeking  the  inten- 
tions of  any  stranger  in  their  midst. ^  Captains  or  pilots  who 
deliberately  permitted  their  vessels  to  fall  out  of  sight  or  drift 
from  the  course,  were  threatened  with  death,  later  mitigated  to  a 
fine  of  50,000  maravedis,  immediate  loss  of  rank,  and  two  years 
exclusion  from  the  India  navigation. 

Beyond  Cape  St.  Vincent,  the  general  or  almirante  visited  each 
ship  of  the  fleet,  to  see  that  the  artillery  was  properly  mounted 
and  served,  to  punish  offenders  against  public  order  and  decency, 
to  discover  and  seize  unregistered  or  prohibited  merchandise,  or 
goods  stored  in  places  forbidden  by  the  ordinances,  and  to  arrest 
unlicensed  passengers,  so  that  they  might  be  landed  in  the 
Canaries  and  sent  back  to  Spain.  The  same  formality  was 
observed  before  leaving  Havana  for  the  homeward  voyage.  And 
at  regular  intervals,  usually  once  a  fortnight,  whether  at  sea  or  in 
port,  the  general  was  expected  to  hold  a  muster  of  all  persons 
under  his  jurisdiction.  From  the  very  first  there  were  strict 
instructions  that  no  blasphemy  be  permitted  in  the  fleet,  and 
that  no  single  women  be  allowed  on  board  except  a  few  laun- 
dresses. Till  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  commanders 
of  armadas  exercised  during  the  voyage  an  exclusive  judicial 
authority  over  the  mariners  and  soldiers  of  the  men-of-war,  but 
not  over  those  of  the  flota,  the  latter  being  reserved  for  the  Casa 
de  Contratacion.  After  1651,  however,  a  special  judge  or  auditor 

^  A  fifth  of  the  proceeds  of  prizes  taken  at  sea  was  reserved  to  the  Crown,  and 
usually  conceded  by  the  king  to  the  captain  general.  The  rest  was  divided  among 
ofl&cers  and  crew,  including  the  general,  according  to  rank.  Spanish  vessels  re- 
captured from  the  enemy  were  restored  entire  to  their  owners. 


GALLEONS  AND  FLOTAS  223 

was  designated  to  accompany  each  armada  for  the  cognizance  of 
civil  and  criminal  suits.^ 

The  route  from  the  Andalusian  coast  was  southwest  to  the 
shores  of  Africa,  and  thence  to  the  Canaries,  considered  a  run  of 
seven  or  eight  days.  In  early  times  it  was  customary  to  stop  at 
these  islands,  complete  there  the  provisioning  of  the  fleet,  and 
pick  up  Canary  boats  sailing  to  the  west.  In  the  seventeenth 
century  the  practice  apparently  was  discontinued.  But  in  any 
case,  if  the  general  foimd  it  necessary  to  call,  he  was  strictly 
enjoined  to  allow  no  one  to  land  except  for  food  and  water,  per- 
mit no  changes  in  cargo  or  equipment,  and  to  make  another 
general  inspection  of  the  ships  upon  resuming  the  voyage. 
Usually  dispatches  for  the  king  were  dropped  there,  and  some- 
time a  patache  sailed  ahead  to  Cartagena  and  Porto  Bello,  carry- 
ing letters  from  the  court  and  announcing  the  fleet's  approach. 
The  general  had  orders  to  put  into  no  port  not  designated  in  his 
instructions,  and  in  case  he  was  driven  in  by  storm  or  other 
accident,  to  remain  only  twenty-four  hours.  For  any  loss  or 
damage  resulting  from  a  longer  delay,  he  would  be  held  to  accotmt 
and  rigorously  punished. 

From  the  Canaries  the  fleet  sailed  west  by  southwest  to  about 
1 6  degrees,  and  then  catching  the  trade  winds  continued  (Jue  west, 
rarely  changing  a  sail  until  Deseada,  Guadaloupe  or  one  of  the 
other  West  Indian  islands  was  sighted.  Occasionally  the  Tierra 
Firme  fleet  pointed  farther  south,  and  entered  the  Caribbean  by 
the  channel  between  Tobago  and  Trinidad,  afterwards  named  the 
Galleons'  Passage.^  It  was  the  constancy  of  these  east  winds,  so 
favorable  for  navigation  to  America,  but  so  formidable  for  the 
return  voyage,  that  urged  the  companions  of  Colmnbus  to 
mutiny.  But  it  made  infinitely  easier  the  path  of  the  great  dis- 
coverer, as  it  was  a  boon -to  all  navigators  who  followed.  In  the 
sixteenth  century,  the  journey  from  the  Canaries  to  Deseada 
ordinarily  consumed  from  twenty-five  to  thirty  days. 

^  Veitia  Linaje,  lib,  ii,  cap.  i,  par.  12,  15,  23,  24,  70;  cap.  2,  par.  43. 

'  In  earlier  times,  a  fleet  occasionally  made  San  Juan  de  Porto  Rico  the  first  port 
of  call,  and  thence  steered  toward  the  South  American  mainland.  See  instructions 
to  Sancho  de  Biedma,  1550,  in  A.  de  I.,  Patr.  2.  5.  5/13,  no.  8,  pt.  i. 


224  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

From  Deseada  the  galleons  steered  an  easy  course  southwest 
to  Cape  de  la  Vela,  and  thence  to  Cartagena,  reaching  the  latter 
port  six  or  seven  weeks  after  their  departure  from  Spain.  Oppo- 
site Margarita,  an  armed  patache  left  the  fleet  to  visit  the  island 
and  collect  the  royal  revenues,  although  after  the  exhaustion  of 
the  pearl  fisheries  the  island  lost  most  of  its  earlier  importance. 
At  the  same  time  merchant  ships  intending  to  trade  on  the  coasts 
they  were  passing  either  accompanied  the  patache  or  sailed  alone 
during  the  night,  and  made  for  Caracas,  Maracaibo  or  Santa 
Marta,  to  get  gold,  cochineal,  leather  and  cocoa.  But  they  were 
permitted  to  separate  from  the  convoy  only  with  the  license  of  the 
general,  countersigned  by  the  almirante  and  the  pilot  major. 
And  with  each  were  sent  instructions  indicating  the  time  for 
rejoining  the  fleet  at  Cartagena  or  Havana,  with  copies  for  the 
governor  or  audiencia  of  the  port  to  which  they  were  bound. 
From  Cartagena  the  galleons  continued  westward  to  Nombre  de 
Dios  or  Porto  Bello  on  the  isthmus. 

Owing  to  the  ever-present  danger  from  corsairs,  the  rule  was 
laid  down  in  1579  that  no  ship  might  enter  or  leave  a  port  in  the 
Indies  under  cover  of  darkness,  without  risk  of  being  fired  on  by 
the  forts.  If  a  vessel  arrived  after  nightfall,  it  had  to  anchor  out- 
side and  send  in  word  by  a  pinnace.  When  a  fleet  came  within 
sight  of  the  fortress  at  the  mouth  of  a  harbor,  the  flagship  fired 
one  gun  if  an  armada,  if  a  flota  two  guns,  as  signal  that  the 
approaching  ships  were  friendly.  Single  vessels  also  fired  two 
guns  on  nearing  a  port,  or  if  without  artillery  dipped  the  main- 
topsail. 

The  course  of  the  Mexican  flota  from  Deseada  was  in  a  general 
northwesterly  direction,  passing  Santa  Cruz  and  Porto  Rico,  and 
sighting  the  little  isles  of  Mona  and  Saona,  to  the  Bay  of  Neyba 
in  Hispaniola,  where  the  ships  took  on  wood  and  water. ^  Put- 
ting to  sea  again,  and  circling  round  Beata  and  Alta  Vela,  the 
fleet  sighted  in  turn  Cape  Tiburon,  Cape  de  la  Cruz,  the  Isle 
of  Pines,  and  Capes  Corrientes  and  San  Antonio  at  the  west 

^  Oppenheim,  The  Naval  Tracts  of  Sir  William  Monson,  ii,  pp.  335  flf.  Instead 
of  watering  in  Hispaniola,  the  fleet  sometimes  stopped  at  Dominica,  or  at  Aguada 
in  Porto  Rico. 


GALLEONS  AND  FLOTAS  225 

end  of  Cuba.  Meanwhile  merchantmen  had  dropped  away  one 
by  one,  sailing  to  San  Juan  de  Porto  Rico,  San  Domingo,  San- 
tiago de  Cuba,  and  Truxillo  and  Caballos  in  Honduras,  to  carry 
orders  from  Spain  to  the  governors,  receive  cargoes  of  leather, 
cocoa,  etc.,  and  rejoin  the  flota  at  Havana.  From  Cape  San 
Antonio  to  Vera  Cruz  there  was  an  outside  or  winter  route  and  an 
inside  or  summer  route.  The  former  lay  northwest  beyond  the 
Alacran  reefs,  west  or  southwest  to  the  Mexican  coast  above 
Vera  Cruz,  and  then  down  before  the  wind  into  the  desired 
haven.  The  summer  track  was  much  closer  to  the  shore  of 
Campeche,  the  fleet  threading  its  way  among  the  cays  and 
shoals,  and  approaching  Vera  Cruz  by  a  channel  on  the  south- 
east. 

The  general,  arrived  at  Porto  Bello  or  Vera  Cruz,  exhibited  to 
the  colonial  authorities  his  instructions  from  Spain,  and  was  for 
the  time  being  subject  to  the  orders  of  the  viceroy  or  audiencia  of 
that  region.  When  the  armada  de  la  carrera  sailed  to  the  isthmus, 
however,  its  commander  took  precedence  over  the  president  of 
Panama.  The  customs  ofiicers  had  full  power  to  visit  and  in- 
spect the  galleons,  as  they  inspected  the  merchantmen;  and  if 
the  former  carried  a  part  cargo,  guards  were  placed  on  board,  as 
on  merchant  vessels,  to  prevent  the  secret  abstraction  of 
unregistered  articles. 

The  general  might  require  lodgings  for  his  soldiers  in  the  town, 
and  maintain  a  guard  of  twenty-five  at  his  own  quarters.  But  at 
Havana  and  Cartagena,  which  were  first-class  fortresses,  it  was 
customary  for  the  governor  to  furnish  a  guard  of  honor  from  the 
garrison.  If  convenient  (within  twenty  or  thirty  days,  according 
to  earlier  instructions),  the  general  sent  duphcate  dispatches  in 
cipher  to  Spain,  one  direct  and  the  other  via  Havana,  concerning 
the  state  of  the  country,  the  amoimt  of  treasure  to  be  expected, 
the  prices  of  merchandise  in  the  colonies,  the  probable  date  of 
departure,  etc.  And  if  the  flotas  wintered  in  America,  word  of 
this  decision  was  forwarded  within  a  month  to  Seville.  A  formal 
report  upon  the  condition  of  the  forts  and  garrisons  of  the  places 
visited  was  likewise  prepared  for  the  information  of  the  India 
Council. 


226  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

The  cost  of  provisions  and  other  supplies  purchased  for  the 
homeward  voyage  was  defrayed  out  of  the  royal  treasure,  and  the 
exchequer  recouped  from  the  proceeds  of  the  averia  in  Seville. 
Under  no  circumstances  might  requisitions  be  made  upon  the 
money  of  private  individuals,  or  upon  the  Bienes  de  Difuntos. 
The  crews  and  armament  of  merchant  ships  remaining  in  the 
Indies  were  used  to  supply  deficiencies  in  the  returning  fleet,  the 
captains  after  unlading  being  required  to  give  particular  account 
of  their  men,  artillery  and  stores,  and  strictly  forbidden  to  dispose 
of  any  without  permission  from  the  general.  As  unlicensed  emi- 
grants often  went  over  in  the  guise  of  sailors,  the  crews  were 
expected  to  return  at  the  first  opportunity,  and  if  they  refused 
were  sent  back  under  arrest.  Any  citizen  of  the  port  who  bought 
provisions  or  arms  from  the  sailors  without  leave,  or  who  aided 
or  harbored  deserters,  subjected  himself  to  the  general's  private 
jurisdiction.!  The  general,  admiral  and  other  warrant  officers 
were  from  the  first  forbidden  to  carry  goods  to  America  other  than 
was  required  for  personal  use,  to  own  ships  in  the  flota  or  have  any 
interest  in  them,  to  engage  in  any  sort  of  trade  during  the  voyage, 
or  receive  gifts  from  passengers  or  merchants.  But  the  enforce- 
ment of  such  rules  was  rarely  attempted,  and  the  extent  of  these 
irregular  practices  was  a  scandal  throughout  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries. 

Whatever  vessels  were  in  port  lading  for  Spain  at  the  time  of  the 
fleet's  visit  were  expected  to  sail  in  its  company,  nor  were  the 
authorities  permitted  to  make  exceptions  to  this  rule.  The  object 
was  not  only  to  insure  protection  against  pirates,  but  to  keep 
information  from  reaching  the  outlaws  through  the  mischance  of 
a  ship's  capture.  Indeed  frequently  when  the  galleons  were  in  the 
Indies,  all  ports  were  closed  by  the  Spaniards,  for  fear  that 
precious  knowledge  of  the  whereabouts  of  the  fleet  and  of  the 
value  of  its  cargo  might  inconveniently  leak  out  to  their  English, 
French  or  Dutch  rivals. 

The  ships  at  Porto  Bello,  in  view  of  the  prevailing  east  winds 
in  that  region,  and  the  maze  of  reefs,  cays  and  shoals  extending 
far  out  to  sea  from  the  Mosquito  coast,  in  making  their  course  to 
*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  i,  par.  i6;  cap.  2,  par.  45. 


GALLEONS  AND  FLOTAS  227 

Havana  first  sailed  back  to  Cartagena  upon  the  eastward  coast 
eddy,  so  as  to  get  well  to  the  windward  of  Nicaragua  before 
attempting  the  passage  through  the  Yucatan  Channel.  They 
anchored  at  Cartagena  a  second  time  for  a  week  or  ten  days  to 
receive  the  king's  revenues,  when  they  were  rejoined  by  the 
Margarita  patache  and  by  the  merchant  ships  sent  to  trade  along 
the  Spanish  main.  From  Cartagena  the  course  was  northwest 
past  Jamaica  and  the  Caymans  to  the  Isle  of  Pines,  and  thence 
roimd  Capes  Corrientes  and  San  Antonio  to  Havana,  a  nm  gener- 
ally of  about  eight  days.  Here  the  fleet  refitted  and  revictualled, 
received  tobacco,  sugar  and  other  Cuban  exports,  and  if  not 
ordered  to  wait  for  the  Mexican  flota,  departed  for  Seville.  From 
New  Spain  the  route  to  Havana  was  also  an  indirect  one.  As 
Vera  Cruz  lay  dead  to  the  leeward  of  Cuba,  the  fleet  sailed  north 
by  northeast  to  about  25  degrees,  then  steered  southeast,  and 
reached  Havana  in  eighteen  or  twenty  days.^ 

If,  as  sometimes  happened,  the  two  fleets  were  instructed  to 
meet  at  Havana  and  return  home  in  company,  it  was  the  older 
rule  that  the  general  who  arrived  first  should  wait  till  the  middle 
of  June,  and  if  the  other  appeared  within  that  time,  give  him  at 
least  eight  or  ten  days  grace  to  make  whatever  dispositions  were 
necessary.  But  later  the  sailings  became  so  irregular  as  to  render 
this  detail  obsolete.  There  were  also  ordinances  to  the  effect  that 
if  the  Tierra  Firme  fleet  was  unable  to  reach  Spain  by  the  latter 
part  of  October,  it  should  winter  at  Cartagena  or  Havana.  But 
in  the  seventeenth  century  they  were  rarely  observed.  The 
necessities  of  the  Spanish  exchequer,  and  the  great  expense  of 
tying  up  the  ships  for  five  or  six  months  in  America,  outweighed 
the  supposed  dangers  of  approaching  the  Spanish  coasts  in  the 
stormy  season.  When  the  fleets  sailed  together,  the  commander 
of  the  Mexican  flota  lowered  his  flag  to  the  general  of  the  galleons 
or  armada  de  la  carrera.  If  the  Tierra  Firme  fleet  was  imaccom- 
panied  by  the  galleons,  and  the  two  generals  were  therefore  of 
equal  rank,  the  one  who  reached  Havana  first  took  precedence, 

1  In  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  before  Havana  became  the  port  of 
dispatch  for  returning  ships,  and  when  San  Domingo  was  still  one  of  the  principal 
centres  of  American  trade,  the  route  out  of  the  Caribbean  was  through  the  Mona 
Passage  between  Hispaniola  and  Porto  Rico  into  the  Atlantic. 


228  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

the  other  acting  as  ahnirante.  But  these  rules  touched  only 
matters  of  navigation,  the  internal  governance  of  each  fleet 
remaining  with  the  respective  commanders.  ^ 

The  course  for  Spain  was  from  Cuba  through  the  Bahama 
Channel,  northeast  between  the  Virginia  capes  and  the  Bermudas 
to  about  38  degrees,  in  order  to  recover  the  strong  northerly 
winds,  and  then  east  to  the  Azores.  In  winter  the  fleets  some- 
times ran  south  of  the  Bermudas  (the  route  followed  by  Colum- 
bus and  his  immediate  successors),  and  then  slowly  worked  up  to 
the  higher  latitude;  but  in  so  doing  they  often  either  lost  ships 
on  the  Bermuda  reefs,  or  to  avoid  these  slipped  too  far  south, 
were  forced  back  into  the  West  Indies,  and  missed  their  voyage 
altogether.  The  Bahama  strait  was  one  of  the  most  dangerous 
passages  in  the  journey.  It  lay  in  the  path  of  violent  hurricanes 
at  certain  seasons,  and  the  reefs  at  the  entrance,  round  the  lower 
part  of  Florida,  bore  the  significant  name  of  Cabezas  de  los 
Martires.  At  its  narrowest  point  it  is  only  thirty-nine  miles 
wide.  Pedro  Menendez  de  Aviles,  shortly  after  his  second  voyage, 
and  prior  to  his  establishment  of  the  Spanish  settlement  at  St. 
Augustine,  began  to  urge  upon  the  king  the  necessity  of  ports  of 
refuge  near  this  channel  where  vessels  might  put  in  for  repairs. 
And  one  of  the  most  powerful  arguments  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  Florida  colony,  which  was  always  a  drain  upon  the  colonial 
exchequer,  was  the  rescue  of  Spaniards  cast  away  in  that 
neighborhood. 

At  the  Azores  the  general,  meeting  with  his  first  intelKgence 
from  Spain,  learned  if  there  were  corsairs  or  hostile  squadrons 
reported  in  the  vicinity,  and  where  on  the  coast  of  Europe  or 
Africa  he  was  to  make  his  first  landfall.  He  was  usually  instructed 
before  reaching  the  islands  to  clear  out  the  staterooms  and  berths 
of  the  passengers  and  put  his  ships  in  fighting  trim;  and  with 
these  precautions  he  made  for  the  port  of  San  Lucar.  The  Crown 
was  very  solicitous  that  as  the  fleet  approached  along  the  coast 
of  Algarve,  no  shallop  or  other  small  vessel  should  be  permitted 
to  communicate  with  the  shore  on  any  pretext,  or  any  one  from 
shore  be  allowed  to  come  aboard  the  ships;  the  ordinances  im- 
^  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  i,  par.  39,  40,  45,  48. 


GALLEONS  AND  FLOTAS  229 

posing  a  penalty  of  200  stripes  and  ten  years  in  the  galleys  for 
infraction  of  this  rule.  On  arriving  in  port,  the  general  was 
expected  to  send  advice  immediately  to  the  Council  of  the  Indies, 
by  the  hand  of  the  president  of  the  Casa.  But  in  Veitia  Linaje's 
time,  the  practice  had  arisen  of  dispatching  directly  to  Madrid 
one  of  the  gentlemen  attendant  upon  the  general  with  the  good 
news  of  the  fleet's  return. ^ 

The  last  stage  in  the  general's  progress  was  the  '*  residencia,'' 
or  judicial  inquiry  into  his  acts  since  the  fleet's  departure  from 
Spain.  The  residencia  apparently  did  not  become  customary  till 
toward  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Thereafter,  at  the  end 
of  each  voyage,  the  commander  and  his  principal  subordinates 
underwent  an  investigation  or  scrutiny  of  thirty  days  (later  often 
prolonged  to  six  months  or  more),  conducted  in  secret  by  a  mem- 
ber of  the  India  Council,  or  more  commonly  by  the  president  or 
one  of  the  judges  of  the  Casa.  In  theory  it  was  a  searching  ordeal, 
but  from  what  we  know  of  the  irregularities  almost  imiversal  on 
the  fleets,  and  the  few  generals  who  were  brought  to  account,  we 
may  conclude  that  it  was  more  often  an  empty  formality. 

I  have  followed,  with  perhaps  the  same  slow  pace  of  the 
galleons  themselves,  the  India  fleets  from  Seville  across  the 
Atlantic  to  the  New  World,  and  back  to  the  quays  of  the  Casa 
de  Contrataci6n.2  For  passengers  and  sailors  it  was  a  long  and 
trying  experience.  Although  they  broke  the  monotony  by  im- 
provising mimic  bullfights,  by  illuminations,  cockfights,  shark 
fishing,  and  religious  festivals,  quarters  were  painfully  restricted, 

1  Decrees  of  i6i6  directed  that  within  a  month  of  the  return  of  the  fleets  to 
Spain,  a  dispatch  boat  be  sent  to  Tierra  Firme  or  New  Spain,  as  the  case  might  be, 
with  word  of  the  safe  arrival,  dispatches  from  the  court,  and  private  letters.  The 
vessel  was  sent  at  the  charge  of  the  royal  exchequer,  and  generally  permitted  to 
carry  some  agricultural  produce  in  order  to  reduce  the  expense.  Veitia  Linaje,  lib. 
ii,  cap.  ai,  par.  2. 

*  The  principal  sources  used  for  this  description  are  the  instructions  issued 
to  Sancho  de  Biedma,  June,  1550  (A.  de  I.,  Patr.  2.  5.  5/13,  no.  8,  pt.  i),  and 
to  Pedro  Men6ndez  de  Avil6s  in  1562  (A.  de  I.,  139.  i.  i,  lib.  i);  the  code  of 
ordinances  published  in  1597,  and  used  by  Veitia  Linaje  as  the  basis  of  chapter  i, 
book  ii  of  the  Norte;  the  "  Ordenanzas  para  las  armadas  del  mar  Oc6ano  y  flotas  de 
Indias,"  November  4,  1606  (printed  by  Salas,  Af ar i«a  Espanola,  p.  65);  and  the 
memoir  of  MM.  Dehalde  and  de  Rochefort  to  the  French  king  in  1680  (Margry, 
Relations  ei  m6moires,  p.  192). 


230  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

and,  after  several  weeks  of  saiKng,  food  none  of  the  best.  The 
most  striking  incidents  were  the  passing  of  the  Canaries,  the 
landfalls  in  the  Windward  and  Leeward  Islands,  where  the 
Caribs,  if  not  hostile,  came  out  in  canoes  to  exchange  fruits  for 
hardware  and  trinkets,  and  the  appearance  of  an  occasional 
corsair,  who  boldly  mingled  with  the  fleet  to  reconnoitre  the  con- 
voy, and  perhaps  snap  up  a  laggard  before  its  fellows  could  come 
to  the  rescue.  Alonso  Enriquez  de  Guzman,  who  in  1535  went 
out  to  seek  his  fortune  in  Peru,  writes  in  his  diary: 

It  is  now  ten  days  since  we  have  seen  land,  and  we  shall  consider  ourselves 
lucky  if  we  see  it  in  twenty  days  from  this  time.  Fortunate  are  they  who  now 
sit  down  content  before  their  fresh  roast  meat,  especially  if  a  fountain  of 
water  flows  near  their  doors.  They  have  now  begun  to  serve  out  water  to  us 
by  a  measure,  and  the  people  on  board  prefer  drinking  what  is  in  the  ship, 
to  seeing  that  which  is  outside.  I  really  believe  that  there  are  many  here 
who  would  be  glad  to  return  to  Spain,  and  to  have  paid  their  passage  without 
making  the  voyage.^ 

In  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  dispatches  were 
carried  to  and  from  the  Indies,  between  fleets,  on  Hght,  swift- 
sailing  caravels  of  from  60  to  100  tons.  Under  Philip  II  the  sail- 
ings were  apparently  irregular,  but  in  1628,  in  the  contract  of  the 
Seville  merchants  with  the  king  for  the  administration  of  the 
averia,  it  was  stipulated  that  they  send  four  mail  boats  each  year, 
two  to  New  Spain  and  two  to  Tierra  Firme,  at  the  pleasure  of  the 
president  and  oficiales  of  the  Casa.  This  number  of  regular 
sailings  continued  throughout  the  rest  of  the  century,  the  busi- 
ness remaining  in  the  hands  of  the  Consulado.  After  1664,  it 
seems,  a  boat  departed  every  three  months,  going  directly  to 
Cartagena  for  the  dispatches  from  Peru,  thence  to  Havana  to 
pick  up  those  from  Mexico  and  the  islands,  and  back  to  Spain. 
It  was  originally  forbidden  to  carry  any  merchandise  or  passengers 
on  these  vessels,  but  the  rule  was  rarely  observed. 

^  Life  and  acts,  i $18-1 543  (tr.  by  Sir  C.  R.  Markham,  London,  1862),  cbap.  36. 


CHAPTER  X 

CORSARIOS  LUTERANOS 

In  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  corsairs  were  ever  an 
imminent  peril  in  the  India  navigation,  as  they  continued  to  be 
till  the  nineteenth  on  the  waters  of  the  Mediterranean  and  in  the 
Far  East.  There  were  always  freebooters  upon  the  seas  as  there 
were  highwaymen  upon  land.  Modem  cruisers  with  rifled  guns 
have  eliminated  the  one,  though  brigands  persist  in  spite  of  a 
twentieth-century  constabulary.  Something  has  been  said  in  an 
earlier  connection  of  the  activities  of  the  French  on  the  trade 
route  between  Spain,  the  Canaries  and  the  Azores  in  the  first 
fifty  years  after  Colimibus.  They  were  equally  active  in  the  West 
Indies.  Cabot  found  a  French  corsair  near  the  Bay  of  All  Saints 
in  Brazil  when  on  his  way  to  the  Rio  de  la  Plata  in  1526.  The 
ship  San  Gabriel  of  the  expedition  of  Loaysa  to  the  Philippines 
had  to  defend  itself  against  three  which  attacked  it  upon  the  same 
coast.*  In  July,  1540,  an  English  ship  seized  a  Spaniard  laden 
with  sugar  and  hides  near  San  Domingo.  The  pirate  was  wrecked 
immediately  after,  close  to  Cape  Tiburon,  but  the  crew  put  their 
prisoners  ashore  and  escaped  in  the  prize,  leaving  behind  in  their 
haste  their  French  pilot.^  The  colonial  authorities,  in  reporting 
the  incident,  asked  the  king  for  two  armed  galleys  to  defend  their 
coasts. 

A  letter  dated  April  8,  1537,  written  by  Gonzalo  de  Guzman 
to  the  Empress,  affords  some  interesting  details  of  the  exploits  of 
an  anonymous  French  corsair  in  that  year.  In  the  previous 
November  this  Frenchman  had  seized  in  the  port  of  Chagres,  on 
the  isthmus  of  Panama,  a  Spanish  vessel  laden  with  horses  from 
San  Domingo,  had  cast  the  cargo  into  the  sea  and  sailed  away 
with  the  empty  ship.   A  month  or  two  later  he  appeared  off  the 

1  Fernandez  Duro,  Armada  Espanola,  i,  204. 
*  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  i,  p.  572. 


232  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

coast  of  Havana  and  dropped  anchor  in  a  small  bay  a  few  leagues 
from  the  city.  As  there  were  then  five  Spanish  ships  lying  in  the 
harbor,  the  inhabitants  compelled  the  captains  to  attempt  the 
capture  of  the  pirate,  promising  to  pay  for  the  vessels  if  they  were 
lost.  Three  of  about  200  tons  each  sailed  out  to  the  attack,  and 
for  several  days  they  fired  at  the  corsair,  which,  being  a  caravel  of 
light  draught,  had  nm  up  the  bay  beyond  their  reach.  Finally  one 
morning  the  Frenchman  was  seen  pressing  with  both  sail  and  oar 
to  escape  from  the  port.  One  of  the  Spaniards  cut  her  cables  to 
follow  in  pursuit,  but  encountering  a  heavy  sea  and  contrary 
winds  was  abandoned  by  her  crew,  who  made  for  shore  in  boats. 
The  other  two  Spanish  ships  were  deserted  in  similar  fashion, 
whereupon  the  French,  observing  this  new  turn  of  affairs,  re- 
entered the  bay  and  easily  recovered  the  three  drifting  vessels. 
Two  of  the  prizes  they  burnt,  and  arming  the  third  sailed  away  to 
cruise  in  the  Florida  strait,  in  the  route  of  ships  returning  from 
the  West  Indies  to  Spain. ^ 

According  to  Herrera,  San  German  in  Porto  Rico  was  sacked 
in  1540,  and  La  Burburata  on  the  mainland  in  154 1.  In  January, 
1544,  on  the  day  of  Santiago,  300  Frenchmen  entered  the  city  of 
Cartagena  before  dawn,  guided  by  a  compatriot  who  had  lived 
there,  overcame  the  Spaniards  after  a  short  defense  in  which  four 
or  five  were  killed  and  the  governor  twice  wounded,  plundered  the 
place  and  got  35,000  pesos  in  gold  and  silver  alone,  besides  other 
spoil.2  The  freebooters,  however,  were  not  always  so  uniformly 
successful.  This  same  band  sailed  from  Cartagena  to  Havana, 
but  foimd  the  inhabitants  prepared  and  retired  with  the  loss  of 
fifteen  men.  Another  party  of  eighty,  who  attempted  to  seize  the 
town  of  Santiago  de  Cuba,  were  repulsed  by  a  certain  Diego 
Perez  of  Seville,  captain  of  an  armed  merchant  ship  then  in  the 
harbor,  who  later  petitioned  for  the  grant  of  a  coat  of  arms  in 
recognition  of  his  services.^  In  October,  1544,  six  French  vessels 
attacked  the  settlement  of  Santa  Maria  de  los  Remedios,  near 
Cape  de  la  Vela,  but  failed  to  take  it  in  face  of  the  stubborn 
resistance  of  the  colonists.   Yet  the  latter  a  few  months  earher 

*  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  vi,  p.  22.  '  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  vi,  p.  23. 

*  Fernandez  Duro,  op.  cit.,  i,  p.  432. 


CORSARIOS  LUTERANOS  233 

had  been  unable  to  preserve  their  homes  from  pillage,  and  had 
been  obliged  to  flee  to  La  Grangeria  de  las  Perlas  on  the  Rio  de  la 
Hacha.i  'Phg  pirates  had  robbed  the  churches,  and  even  disin- 
terred the  dead  in  their  search  for  booty.  They  marched  into  the 
country,  maimed  live  stock  and  cut  down  the  fruit  trees  and 
gardens.  There  is  little  wonder,  indeed,  that  the  defenders  were 
so  rarely  victorious.  The  Spanish  towns  were  ill-provided  with 
forts  and  guns,  and  often  entirely  without  ammunition  or  any 
regular  soldiers.  The  distance  between  settlements  as  a  rule  was 
great,  and  the  inhabitants,  as  soon  as  informed  of  the  presence 
of  the  enemy,  knowing  that  they  had  no  means  of  resistance  and 
small  hope  of  succor,  left  their  homes  to  the  mercy  of  the  free- 
booters and  fled  to  the  hills  and  woods  with  their  families  and 
most  precious  belongings.  In  July,  1548,  the  prior  and  consuls  of 
Seville  complained  that  American  towns,  especially  Santa  Marta, 
Cartagena,  Nombre  de  Dios  and  Havana,  were  either  without 
protection  or  their  defenses  so  weak  as  to  be  as  good  as  useless. 
And  a  letter  of  September  1 1  from  the  authorities  at  Santa  Marta 
to  the  Emperor  declared  that  unless  a  fort  and  artillery  were  soon 
provided,  the  settlement  would  be  abandoned.  The  audiencia  of 
San  Domingo  in  March,  1549,  urged  that  small  flotillas  of  cara- 
vels be  constructed  to  guard  the  West  Indian  coasts.  They 
should  be  equipped  with  oars,  sheathed  with  lead,  and  armed 
with  artillery  of  brass  "  pues  la  de  hierro  con  los  soles  y  la  hume- 
dad  se  pierde  pronto  en  Indias."  The  judges  suggested  a  tax  of 
I  per  cent  on  all  merchandise  entering  or  leaving  the  colonies  to 
defray  the  expense.^ 

These  appeals,  however,  met  with  little  response,  and  West 
Indian  waters  were  so  dominated  by  Frenchmen  that  intercolonial 
trade  virtually  ceased.  In  October,  1554,  a  band  of  300  swooped 
down  upon  the  imfortunate  town  of  Santiago  de  Cuba,  were  able 
to  hold  it  for  thirty  days,  and  carried  away  the  value  of  80,000 
pesos.  The  following  year  witnessed  an  even  more  remarkable 
action.  In  July  of  1555,  the  celebrated  captain,  Jacques  Sore, 
landed  200  men  from  a  caravel  a  half  league  from  the  city  of 

^  Marcel,  Les  corsaires  franqais  au  xvi  Steele  dans  les  Antilles,  p.  16. 
'  Fernandez  Duro,  op.  cit.,  i,  p.  438. 


234  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

Havana,  before  daybreak  marched  on  the  town  and  forced  the 
surrender  of  the  castle.  The  Spanish  governor  had  time  to  retire 
to  the  country,  where  he  gathered  a  small  force  of  whites  and 
negroes,  and  returned  to  surprise  the  French  by  night.  Fifteen 
or  sixteen  of  the  latter  were  killed,  and  Sore,  who  himself  was 
wounded,  in  a  rage  gave  orders  for  the  massacre  of  all  the  pris- 
oners. He  burned  the  cathedral  and  the  hospital,  pillaged  the 
houses  and  razed  most  of  the  city  to  the  ground.  After  trans- 
ferring all  the  artillery  to  his  vessel,  he  made  several  forays  into 
the  country,  burned  a  few  plantations,  and  finally  sailed  away  in 
the  beginning  of  August.  No  record  remains  of  the  amount  of  the 
booty,  but  it  must  have  been  considerable.  To  fill  the  cup  of  bit- 
terness for  the  poor  inhabitants,  on  October  4th  there  appeared 
on  the  coast  another  French  ship,  which  had  learned  of  Sore's 
visit  and  of  the  helpless  state  of  the  Spaniards.  Several  hundred 
men  disembarked,  sacked  a  few  plantations  neglected  by  their 
predecessors,  tore  down  or  burned  the  houses  which  the  inhabi- 
tants had  begun  to  rebuild,  and  seized  a  caravel  loaded  with 
leather  which  had  recently  entered  the  harbor. ^  It  is  true  that 
during  these  years  there  was  almost  constant  war  in  Europe 
between  the  Emperor  and  France;  yet  this  does  not  entirely 
explain  the  activity  of  French  privateers  in  Spanish  America,  for 
we  fijid  them  busy  there  in  the  intervals  when  peace  reigned  at 
home.  Once  unleash  the  sea  dogs,  and  it  was  exceedingly  difficult 
to  bring  them  again  under  restraint. 

The  adventures  of  English  privateers  in  Spanish  seas  in  the 
time  of  Queen  Elizabeth  are  too  well  known  to  merit  a  repetition 
of  the  story  here.  In  the  following  century,  under  the  first  two 
Stuarts,  there  was  a  lull  in  their  activities.  James  made  his  peace 
with  Spain  in  1604,  and  the  aristocratic  freebooters  who  had 
enriched  themselves  by  despoiling  the  Spanish  Indies  were 
succeeded  by  a  less  romantic  but  more  practical  generation 
which  devoted  itself  to  trade  and  planting.  One  EngHsh  cap- 
tain, however,  William  Jackson,  made  a  raid  in  1642-43  which 
emulated  the  exploits  of  Sir  Francis  Drake  and  his  contempora- 
ries. Provided  with  letters  of  marque  from  the  Earl  of  Warwick, 
*  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  vi,  p.  360. 


CORSARIOS  LUTERANOS  235 

Admiral  of  the  Fleet  for  the  Long  Parliament,  and  with  dupli- 
cates under  the  Great  Seal,  he  started  out  with  three  ships  and 
about  1 100  men,  mostly  picked  up  in  St.  Kitts  and  Barbadoes, 
and  cruised  along  the  Main  from  Caracas  to  Honduras,  plunder- 
ing the  towns  of  Maracaibo  and  Truxillo.  On  March  25,  1643,  he 
dropped  anchor  in  what  is  now  Kingston  harbor  in  Jamaica, 
landed  about  500  men,  and  after  some  sharp  fighting  and  the  loss 
of  forty  of  his  followers,  entered  the  town  of  Santiago  de  la  Vega, 
which  he  ransomed  for  200  beeves,  10,000  pounds  of  cassava 
bread  and  7000  Spanish  dollars.  Many  of  the  English  were  so 
captivated  by  the  beauty  and  fertility  of  the  island  that  23 
deserted  in  one  night  to  the  Spaniards. ^  Soon  thereafter  Jackson 
sailed  for  England,  but  was  wrecked  near  Land's  End  and  lost 
most  or  all  of  his  booty. 

It  is  a  rather  remarkable  fact  that  throughout  these  two  cen- 
turies, when  Spain  was  so  frequently  at  war  with  the  northern 
maritime  powers,  and  corsairs  swarmed  the  western  seas,  the 
capture  or  destruction  of  the  treasure  fleets,  so  ardently  desired 
by  these  intruders,  was  so  rarely  accomplished.  The  "  corsarios 
luteranos,''  as  the  Spaniards  indiscriminately  called  them,  hover- 
ing about  the  broad  channel  between  Cuba  and  Yucatan,  prowl- 
ing in  the  Florida  strait  or  in  the  waters  near  the  Azores,  were  the 
nightmare  of  Spanish  seamen.  Like  terriers  they  hung  upon  the 
skirts  of  the  great,  unwieldy  flotas,  ready  to  snatch  away  any 
unfortunate  vessel  which  a  tempest  or  other  accident  had  sepa- 
rated from  its  fellows.  But  while  occasionally  they  succeeded  in 
cutting  off  one  or  two  of  the  Spaniards,  they  never  were  strong 
enough  to  attempt  an  entire  fleet.  Thomas  Gage  tells  us  that 
when  sailing  in  the  galleons  from  Porto  Bello  to  Cartagena  in 
1637,  four  privateers  hovering  near  them  carried  away  two  mer- 
chant ships  under  cover  of  darkness.  As  the  same  fleet  was  leav- 
ing Havana,  just  outside  the  harbor  two  strange  vessels  appeared 
in  their  midst,  and  getting  to  the  windward  of  them  singled  out  a 
Spanish  ship  which  had  strayed  a  short  distance  from  the  rest, 
suddenly  gave  her  a  broadside  and  made  her  yield.  The  vessel 
was  laden  with  sugar  and  other  goods  to  the  value  of  80,000 
^  B.  M.,  Sloane  Mss.  793  or  894;  Add.  Mss.  36,327,  no.  9. 


236  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

crowns.  The  Spanish  rear  admiral  and  two  other  galleons  gave 
chase,  but  without  success,  for  the  wind  was  against  them.  The 
whole  action  lasted  only  half  an  hour.^ 

It  needed  a  powerful  squadron,  fitted  out  with  all  the  resources 
of  a  hostile  government,  to  encompass  the  destruction  of  the 
Indian  galleons.  And  this  happened  but  three  times,  in  1628,  in 
1656,  and  in  1657.  The  first  to  accomplish  it  were  the  Hollanders. 
In  the  twelve  years'  truce  of  1609  between  Spain  and  the  Nether- 
lands, by  which  the  latter  virtually  secured  that  independence  for 
which  they  had  struggled  so  long,  Philip  III  reserved  the  right  to 
prohibit  trade  with  his  own  territories  in  America,  yet  declared 
that  he  would  throw  no  impediment  in  the  way  of  Dutch  trade 
with  any  native  states  beyond  the  Hmits  of  the  Spanish  domin- 
ions. This  was  interpreted  by  the  Holland  merchants  to  mean 
free  intercourse  with  all  places  in  the  East  and  West  Indies  not 
in  actual  possession  of  the  Spaniards.  And  after  several  years 
of  discussion,  in  162 1  was  incorporated  the  Dutch  West  India 
Company,  so  closely  identified  with  the  oligarchic  mercantile 
interests  controlling  the  Dutch  state  as  to  be  virtually  a  service 
of  the  government.  As  in  the  same  year  the  Spanish  truce 
expired  and  hostilities  were  promptly  renewed,  the  West  India 
Company  undertook  the  colonial  end  of  the  struggle.  From  1623 
onwards  it  conducted  a  ceaseless  naval  war  in  the  transmarine 
provinces  of  Spain  and  Portugal.  Within  two  years  the  extraor- 
dinary number  of  eighty  ships,  with  1500  cannon  and  over  9000 
sailors  and  soldiers,  were  dispatched  to  American  waters. ^  One 
of  the  fleets,  composed  of  26  ships  and  3300  men,  in  May,  1624, 
captured  San  Salvador  (Bahia),  the  principal  seat  of  Portuguese 
power  in  Brazil;  and  although  the  place  was  retaken  in  the  fol- 
lowing year  by  Fadrique  de  Toledo,  the  Dutch  later  occupied 
Pemambuco,  and  for  nearly  twenty-five  years  retained  posses- 
sion of  a  considerable  part  of  that  coast.  In  1626  three  squadrons 
were  cruising  in  the  Mexican  Gulf  and  off  the  coast  of  Florida,  in 
search  of  the  silver  fleets;  but  they  either  failed  to  discover  their 
prey,  or  had  not  dared  attack  on  account  of  inferior  strength. 

*  Gage,  A  New  Survey  of  the  West  Indies  (ed.  of  1655),  pp.  199  f. 

*  Blok,  History  of  the  People  of  the  Netherlands,  iv,  p.  36. 


CORSARIOS  LUTERANOS  '  237 

One  was  commanded  by  Piet  Heyn,  who  as  vice  admiral  had 
greatly  distinguished  himself  at  the  capture  of  San  Salvador. 
Heyn,  like  many  another  distinguished  mariner  of  that  day,  had 
begun  his  career  as  a  corsair.  He  had  been  captured  by  the 
Spaniards,  and  served  four  years  in  the  galleys;  but  on  recover- 
ing his  freedom  he  returned  to  the  "  course,"  and  with  audacity 
and  good  fortune  attained  to  the  rank  of  admiral  in  the  employ  of 
the  West  India  Company.  In  1627  he  was  in  command  of  a 
squadron  which  captured  a  fleet  of  Portuguese  merchantmen 
laden  with  sugar  and  tobacco  in  the  Bay  of  all  Saints;  and  a 
year  later  he  appeared  in  the  West  Indies  again  with  the  design 
of  intercepting  the  ilota  from  Vera  Cruz.  With  31  ships,  700 
cannon  and  nearly  3000  men,  he  cruised  along  the  northern 
coast  of  Cuba,  and  on  September  8  fell  in  with  his  quarry  near 
Matanzas  Bay  to  the  eastward  of  Havana. 

The  flota,  consisting  of  thirty  merchantmen  convoyed  by 
five  galleons,  had  sailed  from  Vera  Cruz  on  July  21,  imder  com- 
mand of  Juan  de  Benevides  y  Bazan,  but  just  outside  the  har- 
bor had  run  into  a  "  norther,"  the  flagship  being  cast  ashore  and 
the  rest  compelled  to  return  to  port.  On  August  8  the  fleet  set 
sail  again,  now  reduced  to  four  galleons  and  eleven  merchantmen, 
with  an  armament  of  about  225  brass  and  iron  guns.  Meanwhile 
Heyn  had  divided  his  vessels  into  two  squadrons,  one  entrusted 
to  his  vice  admiral,  Hendrik  Lonk,  so  as  to  keep  watch  on  all  the 
usual  maritime  routes;  and  by  the  swarm  of  private  interlopers 
and  corsairs  he  was  kept  informed  of  what  happened  within  the 
extensive  zone  of  operations.  From  Spanish  coasting  vessels  he 
learned  that  news  of  his  presence  had  spread  abroad,  and  that 
the  fleets  were  detained  in  expectation  of  further  orders.  But 
although  it  was  almost  September,  he  kept  to  his  purpose. 
Removing  to  a  distance  from  the  Cuban  coast,  beyond  the  range 
of  the  lookouts,  he  sent  out  scouts,  one  of  which  fell  in  with  the 
ships  of  Benevides  and  accompanied  them  for  a  day  without 
being  questioned  or  disturbed.  At  the  same  time  the  two  ships 
from  Honduras,  deceived  by  the  news  of  Heyn's  disappearance, 
set  out  for  Havana,  found  themselves  surrounded  by  part  of  the 
enemy  near  that  port,  and  made  vain  efforts  to  escape.  One  was 


238  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

dismasted  by  the  fire  of  the  Hollanders  and  forced  to  surrender, 
the  other  was  run  aground  at  the  entrance  to  the  harbor. 

According  to  Benevides'  own  story,  when  the  New  Spain  fleet 
first  sighted  the  Dutchmen,  in  a  coimcil  held  aboard  the  flagship 
there  was  a  division  of  opinion.  One  party  was  for  fighting  a  way 
to  Havana,  the  other,  supported  by  Benevides,  preferred  running 
into  the  "  Matanzas  "  River,  disembarking  the  treasure  and  hiding 
it  in  the  woods.  The  latter  advice  prevailed,  and  the  flagship  led 
the  way  followed  by  the  rest.  But  in  the  twilight  it  ran  aground 
on  an  uncharted  shoal,  and  the  almiranta  and  other  galleons 
coming  on  close  behind  did  the  same.  Evidently  these  four 
armed  vessels,  which  also  carried  the  silver,  went  ahead  leaving 
the  unprotected  merchantmen  to  shift  for  themselves.  In  the 
disorder  and  confusion  the  officers  called  on  the  general  to 
restore  discipline,  but  his  authority  was  nil.  Seeing  the  Dutch 
enter  and  launch  boats  for  an  assault,  he  ordered  his  people 
to  bum  their  vessels  and  make  for  shore,  saving  what  treasure 
they  could.  And  he  himself,  after  preparing  a  mine  for  the 
enemy  in  the  poop  of  the  capitana,  fled  up  the  river  in  a  shal- 
lop to  find  some  one  who  would  carry  word  of  the  disaster  to  the 
governor  of  Havana.  Of  the  entire  Spanish  fleet  only  three 
vessels  escaped,  under  cover  of  night,  to  the  latter  port,  and  most 
of  the  rich  cargo  was  diverted  into  the  coffers  of  the  Dutch  West 
India  Company.  Heyn  remained  many  days  at  Matanzas  trans- 
shipping the  booty.  The  four  galleons  were  refloated,  and  with 
them  and  four  of  the  best  merchantmen,  in  which  everything  of 
value  was  gathered,  the  Dutch  admiral  sailed  through  the  Florida 
strait  to  Europe,  arriving  in  the  month  of  November.  The  gold, 
silver,  indigo,  sugar,  and  logwood  were  sold  in  the  Netherlands  for 
15,000,000  guilders,  and  the  company  was  able  to  distribute  to  its 
shareholders  the  unprecedented  dividend  of  50  per  cent.^ 

When  the  news  reached  Madrid  via  the  Low  Countries,  writes 
Novoa,  "  atormento  al  reino,  hizo  temblar  a  los  hombres  de 
negocios,  y  confundio .  el  caudal  de  todos,  poniendo  en  suma 
congoja  a  los  mas,  no  tanto  por  la  faltad  que  al  Tesoro  hiciera, 

1  Blok,  History  of  the  People  of  the  Netherlands,  iv,  p.  37;  Fernandez  Duro,  op. 
cit.,  iv,  pp.  97-106. 


CORSARIOS  LUTERANOS  239 

como  por  la  afrenta  conque  se  engrosaban  los  enemigos  para 
acabamos  de  destruir."  ^  The  general  and  almirante  of  the 
captured  flota  returned  to  Spain  with  the  galleons  of  Tomas  de 
La  Raspuru,  which  had  tarried  at  Cartagena  till  certain  that  the 
seas  were  free,  and  on  arrival  they  were  immediately  arrested  and 
thrown  into  prison.  In  the  trial  the  prosecutor  for  the  Crown 
was  the  celebrated  jurist,  Juan  de  Solorzano  Pereira,  member 
of  the  Council  of  the  Indies  and  formerly  a  judge  of  the  audiencia 
in  Lima.  In  the  charge  it  appeared  that  Benevides  had  not 
obeyed  the  ordinances  or  his  own  particular  instructions,  that 
the  galleons  and  merchant  ships  were  so  overloaded  as  to  render 
the  artillery  of  no  effect,  that  the  ranks  of  the  soldiers  had  been 
filled  up  with  passengers  and  the  general's  dependents,  that 
Benevides  held  no  musters  or  reviews  and  issued  no  instructions 
to  his  captains,  and  that  neither  before  nor  after  entering 
Matanzas  did  he  make  any  preparations  for  defense  or  offer  any 
resistance. 

The  almirante's  record  was  a  more  honorable  one.  Before 
entering  Matanzas  he  had  prepared  his  vessel  for  battle,  harangu- 
ing the  soldiers  and  offering  rewards  from  his  own  purse  to  the 
bravest.  After  his  ship  ran  aground,  he  continued  fighting  till  the 
enemy  boarded  and  further  resistance  was  useless.  Then  taking 
off  his  habit  of  Santiago  so  as  not  to  be  distinguished  from  the 
sailors,  he  surrendered  and  was  put  on  shore  by  the  Dutch  with 
the  rest.  Benevides,  after  five  years  of  imprisonment  in  the  castle 
of  Carmona,  was  executed  in  Seville.  The  almirante  ended  his 
days  in  a  penal  settlement  on  the  African  coast.^ 

Juan  de  Benevides  should  not  be  accepted  as  typical  of 
Spanish  admirals  and  generals  in  the  India  navigation.  Most  of 
them  must  have  been  men  of  courage  and  resource,  although,  as 
was  true  in  all  maritime  countries  at  that  time,  few  were  profes- 
sional seamen.  The  safety  of  the  treasure  fleets  was  so  essential 
to  the  solvency  of  the  government,  and  indeed  of  the  nation,  that 
the  coimcil  and  the  merchants  between  them  must  have  made 

*  Novoa,  Historia  de  Felipe  IV,  quoted  by  Fernandez  Duro. 
'  Sol6rzano  Pereira,  El  discurso  y  alegacidn  contra  el  general  D.  Juan  de  Bene' 
tides  Bazan  (Madrid,  1631). 


240  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

doubly  sure  of  the  commanders  they  chose.  Although  ship- 
wrecks were  astonishingly  frequent,  they  were  usually  due  to 
other  causes  —  bad  ships,  overcrowding,  ignorant  seamen  — 
rather  than  to  the  incompetence  of  the  general.  And  that  so  few 
fleets  fell  a  prey  to  their  numerous  foes  is  no  small  testimony  to 
the  efficacy  of  the  system  evolved. 

The  Dutch  not  only  invaded  the  West  Indies,  from  the 
beginning  of  the  century  they  also  harassed  the  coasts  of  Chile 
and  Peru.  Their  exemplar  in  such  enterprises  was,  of  course,  Sir 
Francis  Drake,  the  second  circumnavigator  after  Magellan.  He 
had  been  imitated  in  1587  by  Thomas  Cavendish,  who  captured 
the  Manila  ship,  Santa  Ana,  on  the  coast  of  Lower  California, 
and  seven  years  later  less  fortunately  by  Richard  Hawkins.  The 
first  expeditions  of  the  Dutch,  in  1598  and  161 5,  were  not  very 
successful,  although  the  latter,  commanded  by  Joris  Spilbergen, 
defeated  a  small  armada  sent  against  it  by  the  Peruvian  viceroy, 
■  and  captured  a  few  merchant  vessels  which  fell  in  its  way.  The 
most  remarkable  of  these  Pacific  enterprises  was  fitted  out  in  the 
spring  of  1623.  A  squadron  of  eleven  vessels  (the  two  largest  of 
600  tons  each)  set  sail  from  Holland  in  April  imder  Admiral 
Jacques  FHermite,  with  the  intention  of  capturing  the  South  Sea 
fleet  conveying  the  bullion  from  Callao  to  Panama,  and  of  estab- 
lishitig  a  permanent  base  in  some  Peruvian  port.  According  to 
some  accounts,  I'Hermite  expected  to  win  over  the  negro  slaves 
by  offering  them  their  Hberty,  and  to  this  end  carried  a  large 
supply  of  arms  and  saddles,  instead  of  merchandise  for  trade 
as  in  earlier  expeditions  to  those  regions.  He  took  four  caravels 
on  the  Portuguese  coast  filled  with  sugar  from  Brazil,  tarried  a 
month  in  the  Cape  Verde  Islands  for  provisions,  and  then  sailed 
south  to  Guinea  and  round  Cape  Horn  to  the  islands  of  Juan 
Fernandez  to  water  and  refit.  Profiting  by  the  experience  of  his 
predecessors,  he  avoided  the  coast  of  Chile,  from  whose  ports 
advice  would  have  been  sent  to  alarm  the  entire  region,  and  keep- 
ing to  the  high  seas  determined  to  surprise  Callao. 

The  South  Sea  fleet,  however,  had  departed  for  the  north  on 
May  3, 1624,  five  days  before  the  Hollanders  appeared.  Its  cargo 
was  an  unusually  rich  one,  the  accumulation  of  two  successive 


CORSARIOS  LUTERANOS  24I 

years,  and  the  Limeiios  were  in  the  midst  of  celebrating  its  dis- 
patch, when  news  came  of  a  Dutch  fleet  to  the  windward  prepar- 
ing to  disembark.  The  colonists  were  in  a  panic,  and  the  viceroy, 
the  Marquis  of  Guadalcazar,  had  the  greatest  difficulty  in  pre- 
venting them  from  fleeing  en  masse  to  the  interior  with  their 
goods  and  chattels.  The  enemy  landed  on  the  eighth  at  night- 
fall, but  finding  no  resistance  and  fearing  an  ambuscade,  retired 
to  the  ships  again.  On  the  eleventh  they  attempted  to  burn 
some  vessels  in  the  harbor,  but  were  repulsed.  They  remained 
in  command  of  the  sea,  however,  seized  all  vessels  that  ap- 
proached, and  continued  the  blockade  for  five  months.  In  the 
meantime  I'Hermite  died  of  an  illness  contracted  on  the  voyage, 
and  was  succeeded  by  his  vice  admiral,  Hugues  Schapenham. 
Finally  after  sacking  Guayaquil  and  destroying  a  galleon  of  500 
tons  on  the  stocks,  Hugues  raised  the  siege  of  Callao  and  returned 
round  the  Horn  to  join  the  fleet  of  the  West  India  Company  be- 
fore San  Salvador. 

In  Spain  numerous  suggestions  were  forthcoming  for  averting 
a  repetition  of  such  an  enterprise.  It  was  proposed  that  an  ar- 
mada be  sent  at  once  to  defend  the  Pacific  coasts,  an  idea  re- 
jected on  the  score  of  expense  and  the  risk  of  capture  by  the 
Dutch  on  the  way  out.  It  was  suggested  that  Valdivia  be  forti- 
fied as  the  only  southern  port  where  the  Hollanders  might  be 
tempted  to  establish  a  permanent  base;  that  a  watchtower  be 
built  on  Juan  Fernandez,  with  an  advice  boat  to  warn  the  main- 
land of  the  approach  of  the  enemy;  and  that  the  sailing  time  of 
the  South  Sea  fleet  be  advanced  from  May  to  November,  so  that 
the  Dutch,  who  could  pass  through  the  strait  only  from  December 
to  March,  might  have  to  wait  eight  or  nine  months  through  a 
southern  winter,  and  far  from  the  base  of  supplies,  f 01:  the  depar- 
ture of  the  treasure  to  Panama.  So  far  as  we  know,  none  of  these 
ideas  were  acted  upon  immediately  by  the  government.  Appar- 
ently at  the  opening  of  the  year  1625,  it  was  decided  to  send  eight 
galleons  of  the  armada  of  Fadrique  de  Toledo  through  the  strait, 
but  owing  to  the  empty  state  of  the  royal  exchequer  they  were 
never  fitted  out  for  the  voyage.^ 

*  B.  M.,  Add.  Mss.  13,97s,  f.  174;  Egerton  Mss.  320,  321. 


242  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

In  1638  the  Dutch  made  another  desperate  effort  to  intercept 
the  American  flotas.  Pemambuco  they  were  using  as  a  naval  base 
for  operations  in  the  West  Indies,  and  from  there  Cornelius  Joll, 
one  of  the  most  skilful  and  daring  of  Dutch  captains,  sailed  with 
twenty-four  ships  at  the  time  the  fleets  were  accustomed  to  join 
at  Havana.  He  lost  several  vessels  in  a  hurricane,  and  did  not  find 
the  Mexican  flota,  for  unfavorable  winds  had  providentially 
delayed  it  at  Vera  Cruz  till  news  came  from  Havana  of  the  sight- 
ing of  the  enemy.  Similar  advice  to  Cartagena  did  not  arrive  in 
time  to  prevent  the  galleons  from  setting  out.  They  included 
six  men-of-war,  and  were  commanded  by  Carlos  de  Ibarra. 
On  August  30  they  discovered  the  Dutch  to  windward,  seventeen 
ships,  and  two  battles  were  fought.  On  the  thirtieth  the  Dutch, 
counting  on  superior  numbers,  tried  at  once  to  board,  and  were 
shaken  off  at  sundown  after  eight  hours  of  fighting.  The  Spanish 
general  was  wounded,  and  the  capitana  and  almiranta  badly  cut 
up.  But  the  enemy  probably  suffered  as  much,  for  they  did  not 
return  to  the  attack  till  September  3.  After  a  severe  cannonad- 
ing the  Dutch  retired  again,  leaving  the  galleon,  Carmona,  dis- 
masted and  helpless.  Ibarra  decided  to  make  for  Havana  at  all 
costs,  but  when  on  September  5  he  saw  the  Dutch  fleet  re- 
enforced  to  the  number  of  twenty-four,  he  could  not  think  of 
risking  another  encounter,  and  turning  about  set  his  sails  for 
Vera  Cruz.  One  merchantman  alone,  which  out  of  fear  had 
parted  company  with  the  rest  on  the  first  day,  was  captured  by 
the  Hollanders.  Even  the  silver  on  the  Carmona  was  rescued, 
and  the  hulk  floated  into  a  bay  on  the  Cuban  coast.  Ibarra 
reached  Vera  Cruz  in  safety  on  September  24,  and  wintered  there 
with  the  Mexican  flota. ^ 

There  was  great  disquiet  in  Spain  when  the  year  1638  passed 
without  sign  or  news  of  the  fleets.  And  although  reassuring  dis- 
patches eventually  arrived  from  the  viceroy  in  Mexico  City,  the 
government  had  to  continue  living  another  year  on  credit  at 
usurious  interest.  The  united  fleets  returned  by  an  unusual  route, 
touching  neither  at  Havana  nor  at  the  Azores,  and  entered  Cadiz 
Bay  on  June  15,  1639,  to  the  great  contentment  of  the  realm. 

'  B.  M.,  Add.  Mss.  13,975,  ff.  242,  244;  Fernandez  Duro,  op.  cit.,  iv,  chap.  13. 


CORSARIOS  LUTERANOS  243 

Most  of  the  Indian  fleets  at  this  time  were  undermanned  and 
imderarmed,  even  when  the  danger  from  corsairs  and  hostile 
naval  squadrons  seemed  greatest.  The  galleons  which  sailed  in 
June,  1625,  under  the  Marquis  of  Cadereyta,  and  returning  with 
the  flota  in  November  just  escaped  the  English  fleet  under  Wim- 
bledon near  Cadiz,  was  notoriously  lacking  in  armament;  and 
the  Casa  de  Contratacion  wrote  to  the  Council  urging  that  at 
least  150  hundredweight  of  powder  be  hurried  to  Havana  to 
supply  a  suitable  defense  for  the  homeward  voyage.^  So,  too,  the 
galleons  of  Ibarra  in  1638  were  short  of  men  and  munitions, 
although  they  succeeded  in  driving  off  the  Dutch.  These  were 
days  of  pessimism  and  social  and  political  dissolution  in  the 
Spanish  monarchy.  Olivares*  attempt  to  play  a  grand  r61e  in 
European  politics  was  thwarted  by  the  masterly  policy  of  Riche- 
lieu, and  with  defeat  abroad  there  was  favoritism,  administrative 
inefficiency  and  bankruptcy  at  home.  Shipbuilding  virtually 
ceased,  and  with  the  maritime  losses  in  Europe  and  America,  the 
Spanish  navy  disappeared  from  the  seas.  Louis  XIII  wrote  to  the 
archbishop  of  Bordeaux  in  May,  1640,  doubtless  with  malicious 
exaggeration,  that  Spain's  entire  naval  armament  consisted  of 
one  vessel  hired  from  the  English  and  another  lent  by  the  Duke  of 
Florence.2  That  the  armadas  de  la  carrera,  though  maintained 
by  the  Seville  Consulado,  should  be  sent  out  with  inferior  equip- 
ment is  therefore  not  surprising.  It  is  far  more  a  source  of  wonder 
that  the  India  fleets  continued  to  sail  with  any  degree  of  regularity 
at  all.  It  was  probably  only  made  possible  by  the  hiring  of 
foreign-built  ships,  a  practice  inconsistent  with  the  ancient  policy 
of  the  Casa. 

In  the  latter  years  of  Philip  IV,  and  during  the  reign  of  the 
imbecile  Charles  II,  there  was  no  let  to  this  progressive  maritime 
decadence.  The  Indian  fleets  decreased  in  size  and  frequency, 
although,  whether  or  not  by  the  intercession  of  those  saints  whose 
protection  was  so  importunately  evoked  by  Spanish  seamen,  they 
generally  managed  to  elude  their  persecutors.  The  colonies  in 
America  continued  in  a  state  of  military  and  naval  defenseless- 
ness,  forts  without  artillery,  nominal  companies  of  infantry 
*  B.  M.,  Egerton  Mss.  321,  f.  27.  '  Fernandez  Duro,  op.  cit.,  iv,  p.  259. 


244  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION^ 

without  soldiers,  and  the  inhabitants  more  ready  to  take  to  the 
hills  and  woods  than  to  oppose  any  resistance  to  the  invader. 
Indeed,  as  far  back  as  1587  the  Spanish  engineer,  Bautista 
Antonio,  had  written  of  the  inhabitants  of  Panama:  *' .  .  .  foras- 
much as  the  most  part  of  these  people  are  marchants,  they  will 
not  fight,  but  onely  keepe  their  owne  persons  in  safetie,  and  save 
their  goods;  as  it  hath  bene  sene  heretofore  in  other  places  of 
these  Indies."  ^ 

In  May,  1655,  an  expedition  sent  out  by  Oliver  Cromwell 
captured  Jamaica,  the  first  permanent  acquisition  by  another 
European  power  of  an  integral  part  of  Spanish  America.  This 
expedition,  consisting  of  2500  men  and  a  considerable  fleet,  set 
sail  from  England  in  December,  1654,  with  the  secret  object  of 
"  gaining  an  interest  "  in  that  part  of  the  West  Indies  colonized 
by  the  Spaniards.  The  Protector  aimed  not  only  to  plant  one 
more  colony  in  the  New  World,  but  also  to  secure  a  base  whence 
he  might  dominate  the  route  of  the  treasure  fleets.^  The  com- 
mander. General  Venables,  was  not  bound  by  his  instructions  to 
any  definite  plan.  It  had  been  proposed,  he  was  told,  to  seize 
Hispaniola  or  Porto  Rico  or  both,  after  which  either  Cartagena 
or  Havana  might  be  taken,  and  the  Spanish  revenue  fleets  ob- 
structed. An  alternative  scheme  was  to  make  the  first  attempt 
on  the  Main  at  some  point  between  the  Orinoco  and  Porto  Bello, 
with  the,  ultimate  object  of  securing  Cartagena.  Reenforced  by 
some  5000  volunteers  from  Barbadoes  and  neighboring  islands, 
the  English  first  attacked  the  city  of  San  Domingo,  where  they 
suffered  two  shameful  defeats  from  a  handful  of  Spaniards  on 
the  17th  and  25th  of  April.  They  then  sailed  to  Jamaica,  a 
poor  colony  sparsely  inhabited,  and  took  possession  without 
difficulty  on  May  11  and  12. 

Whatever  Cromwell's  motives  —  and  there  was  also  something 
of  the  Crusader  in  his  character  —  there  could  be  no  adequate 
justification  for  this  secret  attack  upon  Spain.  She  had  been  the 
first  to  recognize  the  Puritan  republic,  and  was  willing,  and  even 

1  Hakluyt,  Navigations  (ed.  of  1904),  x,  p.  135. 

'  Exactly  similar  were  the  objects  of  La  Salle,  twenty-five  years  later,  in  urging 
the  colonization  of  Louisiana  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi. 


CORSARIOS  LUTERANOS  245 

anxious,  to  league  herself  with  it.  There  had  been  actual  negotia- 
tions for  an  alliance,  and  Cromwell's  offers  though  rejected  had 
never  been  really  withdrawn.  Without  a  declaration  of  war  or 
formal  notice  of  any  sort,  a  fleet  was  fitted  out  to  fall  unawares 
upon  the  colonies  of  a  friendly  nation.  The  attack  was  inspired 
by  Drake  and  Raleigh,  a  reversion  to  the  Elizabethan  gold  hunt. 

The  soldiers  of  the  expedition,  designed  to  be  kept  as  colonists 
in  the  West  Indies,  proved  to  be  discouraging  material.  They 
were  more  eager  to  plunder  the  Spaniard  than  to  plant  com,  and 
in  the  war  which  ensued  they  were  soon  given  opportunity  to  try 
their  hand.  From  July  to  December  of  1655  the  English  fleet, 
commanded  by  Vice  Admiral  Goodson,  was  on  the  coast  of  the 
Main  between  Cartagena  and  Porto  Bello  lying  in  wait  for  Span- 
ish merchantmen.  In  October,  Santa  Marta  was  taken  and 
sacked,  though  the  booty  secured  scarcely  repaid  the  powder  and 
shot  expended ;  and  six  months  later  Rio  de  la  Hacha  suffered  a 
similar  fate.  In  the  middle  of  June,  1656,  Goodson  had  fourteen 
vessels  lying  off  the  Cuban  coast  near  Cape  San  Antonio,  to  inter- 
cept the  galleons  or  the  flota,  both  of  which  fleets  were  then 
expected  at  Havana.  But  his  ambition  to  repeat  the  achievement 
of  Piet  Heyn  was  not  to  be  realized.  The  Tierra  Firme  fleet,  he 
eventually  learned,  had  sailed  into  Havana  on  May  15,  and  on  the 
13  of  July,  three  days  before  he  appeared  off  that  port,  had  de- 
parted for  Spain.  Goodson  remained  on  his  station,  however,  till 
the  end  of  August,  watching  in  vain  for  the  ships  from  Vera  Cruz 
which,  warned  in  time,  had  concluded  to  winter  in  America. 

The  two  Spanish  fleets  escaped  Goodson  only  to  fall  in  the  way 
of  Admiral  Blake's  squadrons  off  the  coast  of  Europe.  The  Tierra 
Firme  fleet,  comprising  two  galleons,  two  armed  "  ureas  "  or 
store  ships,  and  three  merchantmen,  after  a  voyage  of  fifty-eight 
days  approached  the  Andalusian  coast  in  September.  Outside 
Cadiz  it  was  surprised  and  attacked  by  three  EngKsh  frigates 
commanded  by  Captain  Sta)nier.  The  capitana  was  captured 
with  2,000,000  pesos  in  bullion,  together  with  the  richest  of  the 
merchantmen,  one  urea  accidentally  caught  fire  and  sank  (it  was 
said  with  600,000  pesos),  and  the  almiranta,  which  carried  over  a 
million  pesos,  also  burned  after  a  heroic  defense  of  six  hours.  One 


246  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

urea  escaped  with  the  general  into  Cadiz,  and  the  other  two  mer- 
chant ships  succeeded  in  finding  refuge  at  Gibraltar.  The  Spanish 
armament  was  decidedly  inferior  to  that  of  Stayner,  the  four 
Spanish  men-of-war  carrying  altogether  only  104  guns,  the  three 
English  ships  64, 54,  and  52  guns  respectively.  But  the  Spaniard's 
fond  behef  in  the  invincibility  of  his  heavy  galleons  was  again 
rudely  shaken.^ 

All  the  following  winter  Admiral  Blake  and  his  captains  re- 
mained on  their  stations  blockading  the  Spanish  coast  and 
effectually  cutting  off  communications  between  Spain  and  her 
ultramarine  possessions.  This  winter  blockade  was  a  new  depar- 
ture in  naval  warfare,  something  which  no  ships  had  ever  achieved 
before.  Meanwhile  the  flota,  which  had  lingered  in  New  Spain, 
arrived  without  accident  at  Santa  Cruz  in  the  Canaries  in  Febru- 
ary of  1657,  where  the  treasure,  registered  as  10,500,000  pesos, 
was  disembarked  and  carried  five  or  six  miles  into  the  hills.  Blake 
soon  had  intelligence  of  the  Spaniards'  whereabouts,  and  on 
April  13  set  sail  from  Cadiz  with  twenty-three  ships.  The  harbor 
of  Santa  Cruz  was  strongly  protected,  with  a  castle  of  forty  guns 
at  the  entrance,  and  six  or  seven  stone  forts  connected  by  three 
lines  of  barricade  to  shelter  musketeers.  The  Spanish  vessels  were 
ranged  in  a  half-moon  along  the  shore,  as  close  as  possible  to  the 
batteries.  Fernandez  Duro  says  that  there  were  two  galleons, 
eight  merchantmen  and  a  patache.  English  accounts  agree  in 
making  the  number  sixteen.  The  discrepancy  is  doubtless 
accounted  for  by  other  vessels  not  part  of  the  flota.  Early  on 
Monday  morning,  April  20,  twelve  English  frigates  led  by  Captain 
Stayner  ran  past  the  forts,  anchored  opposite  the  Spaniards,  and 
by  one  o'clock  had  burned  or  silenced  them  all.  By  three  o'clock 
the  work  of  destruction  was  complete.  Blake,  meanwhile,  with 
the  rest  of  his  ships  was  engaging  the  forts  near  the  entrance,  and 
by  sundown  all  the  English  had  succeeded  in  getting  out  of  the 
harbor .2  It  was  the  most  brilliant  action  of  the  Commonwealth 
navy,  and  dealt  a  blow  which  was  felt  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 
Bullion  stowed  away  in  the  Canary  hills  was  about  as  useful  as  in 

*  Firth,  Protectorate,  i,  pp.  50-52;  Fernandez  Duro,  op.  cit.,  v,  pp.  22  f. 
2  Firth,  op.  cit.,  i,  pp.  237-258;  Fernandez  Duro,  op.  cit.,  v,  p.  24. 


CORSARIOS  LUTERANOS  247 

the  American  mines.  Spanish  finances  were  disorganized  and 
military  operations  fatally  hampered,  while  with  the  destruction 
of  the  shipping  needed  for  the  next  voyage,  prices  in  the  colonies 
rose  suddenly  for  all  commodities  imported  in  the  European 
fleets. 

In  the  West  Indies,  the  half-piratical  naval  war  continued.  In 
the  autumn  of  1658  Colonel  Doyley,  governor  of  Jamaica,  made  a 
futile  effort  to  intercept  the  galleons  on  their  course  eastward 
from  Porto  Bello  to  Cartagena,  and  failing  his  prey,  attacked  and 
burned  the  towns  of  Santa  Marta  and  Tolu.  In  the  following 
spring,  three  frigates  were  again  harrying  the  South  American 
coast,  landing  at  Cumana,  Coro,  and  Puerto  Cabello,  and  return- 
ing to  Port  Royal  with  booty  estimated  at  between  two  and  three 
hundred  thousand  pounds  sterhng. 

The  war  with  Spain  was  essentially  a  war  of  the  Common- 
wealth, and  with  the  coming  of  Charles  II  into  possession  of  his 
kingdom  in  May,  1660,  hostilities  naturally  ceased.  The  dispatch 
to  Jamaica  in  1662  of  a  new  governor,  however.  Lord  Windsor, 
fortified  with  instructions  "  to  endeavor  to  obtain  and  preserve 
a  good  correspondence  and  free  commerce  with  the  plantations 
belonging  to  the  king  of  Spain,"  resorting  to  force  if  necessary, 
did  not  augur  well  for  the  peace.  The  question  of  English  trade 
with  the  Spanish  colonies  in  America  had  first  come  to  the  surface 
in  the  negotiations  for  the  treaty  of  1604,  after  the  long  warfare 
between  Elizabeth  and  Philip  II.  The  endeavor  of  the  Spaniards 
to  obtain  an  explicit  prohibition  of  commerce  was  countered  by 
the  English  demand  for  entire  freedom.  The  Spaniards  pro- 
tested that  it  had  never  been  granted  in  former  treaties  or  to 
other  nations,  or  even  without  restriction  to  Spanish  subjects; 
but  the  English  commissioners  held  steadfast,  and  offered  to  for- 
bid trade  only  with  ports  actually  under  Spanish  authority.  A 
compromise  was  finally  reached  in  the  ambiguous  words,  "  in 
quibus  ante  bellum  fuit  commerciam,  juxta  et  secundum  usum  et 
observantiam,"  ^  a  phrase  which  appeared  again  in  Cottington's 
treaty  of  1630.  Charles  II  was  determined  to  secure  this  privilege 
of  free  trade  with  the  Spanish  colonies,  and  instructed  his  succes- 
1  Dumont,  Corps  diplomatique,  v,  2,  p.  625  (art.  ix  of  the  treaty). 


248  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

sive  ambassadors  at  Madrid,  Fanshaw,  Sandwich,  and  Godolphin, 
to  press  for  the  concession.  Meanwhile,  it  was  made  clear  to  his 
governors  in  the  West  Indies  that  they  were  to  cajole  or  frighten 
the  Spanish  authorities  there  into  compliance.  The  efforts  of 
Windsor  to  come  to  a  **  good  correspondence  '*  with  them  were 
fruitless,  and  the  alternative  policy  was  resorted  to.  In  October, 
1662,  1300  men  in  eleven  ships,  most  of  them  privateers,  sailed 
from  Port  Royal  under  Captain  Christopher  Myngs,  and  captured 
and  plundered  Santiago  de  Cuba,  the  Spanish  port  nearest  to 
Jamaican  shores;  and  four  months  later,  in  February,  1663,  a 
similar  fate  befell  the  city  of  Campeche,  on  the  gulf  of  that  name. 

Although  the  English  government,  to  satisfy  the  clamors  of  the 
Spanish  court,  wrote  letters  to  Jamaica  forbidding  such  under- 
takings in  the  future,  subsequent  instructions  continued  to  be 
ambiguous,  and  the  privateers'  commissions  were  not  recalled. 
In  October,  1663,  a  certain  Captain  Cooper  brought  into  Port 
Royal  two  prizes,  the  larger  of  which,  a  ship  from  Seville,  carried 
1000  hundredweight  of  quicksilver  for  the  Mexican  mines,  besides 
oil,  wine,  and  olives.  Letters  from  Jamaica  in  1664  placed  the 
number  scattered  abroad  in  privateering  at  from  1500  to  2000 
men  sailing  in  fourteen  or  fifteen  ships ;  ^  and  the  island  was  soon 
the  principal  headquarters  for  those  "  buccaneers "  whose 
exploits  are  perhaps  the  most  characteristic  feature  of  West 
Indian  history  in  the  seventeenth  century.  Spain  was  impotent 
to  make  their  actions  a  casus  belli;  and  indeed  corsairing  "  be- 
yond the  line"  had  been  so  customary  ever  since  the  days  of 
Charles  V  that  it  was  scarcely  regarded  in  the  same  serious  light 
as  similar  hostilities  in  Europe.  EngKsh  and  French  ambassadors 
at  Madrid  consistently  maintained  that  the  treaties  of  peace 
did  not  extend  to  tropical  America,  and  Louis  XIV,  as  already 
related,  more  than  once  held  the  buccaneers  as  a  club  over  the 
heads  of  the  Spanish  authorities  when  French  participation  in  the 
galleon  trade  was  threatened  or  seriously  interfered  with. 

The  buccaneers  were  most  of  them  in  the  beginning  recruited 
from  the  hunters  of  wild  cattle  and  pigs,  who,  especially  on  the 
*  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  colonial  series,  v,  nos.  744,  765,  786,  812. 


CORSARIOS  LUTERANOS  249 

northern  shores  of  Hispaniola,  gained  a  rude  livelihood  by  curing 
the  hides,  and  drying  the  flesh  to  supply  the  needs  of  passing 
vessels.  When  these  scattered  groups  of  hunters  first  appeared 
we  do  not  know  —  probably  in  the  first  quarter  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  They  were  mostly  English  and  French,  deserters  from 
ships,  crews  of  wrecked  vessels,  chance  maroons,  or  refugees 
from  the  settlements  in  the  Windward  and  Leeward  Islands.  A 
small,  rocky  island  on  the  northwest  coast  of  Hispaniola,  called 
by  the  Spaniards  Tortuga,  offered  them  a  convenient  retreat 
should  their  neighbors  become  troublesome,  and  probably  before 
1630  it  was  already  one  of  their  headquarters.  The  island  suffered 
various  vicissitudes.  It  was  an  English  colony  under  the  protec- 
tion of  the  Providence  Company  from  1631  to  1640,  and  after 
1640  in  possession  of  the  French.  It  was  attacked  by  Spanish 
forces  from  San  Domingo  five  times  between  1630  and  1654,  and 
each  time  but  one  the  inhabitants  momentarily  driven  out.  After 
a  temporary  English  occupancy  in  1656-60,  the  island  became 
definitely  French,  was  ceded  in  1664  to  the  new  French  West 
India  Company,  and  became  the  centre  whence  radiated  the 
colonization  of  the  important  French  dependency  of  Saint 
Domingue. 

Until  about  1650  buccaneering  in  the  West  Indies  was  more  or 
less  accidental,  occasional,  in  character.  In  the  second  half  of  the 
century,  after  the  capture  of  Jamaica,  came  the  period  of  leaders 
like  Mansfield,  Morgan,  and  de  Grammont,  the  heyday  of  this 
piratical  fraternity.  Then  they  usually  sailed  under  conunissions, 
real  or  pretended,  from  the  authorities  at  Jamaica  or  Tortuga,  set 
aside  a  tenth  of  the  profits  for  the  governor,  and  sometimes  as 
much  to  pay  the  EngKsh  admiralty  dues.  Or,  when  their  prizes 
were  imauthorized,  they  withdrew  to  some  secluded  coast  to  make 
a  partition  of  the  booty,  and  on  their  return  to  port  eased  the 
governor's  conscience  with  politic  gifts. 

It  was  the  Spanish  coast  towns  on  the  Caribbean  and  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico  which  suffered  most  from  the  buccaneers'  activities. 
For  them  the  record  was  a  terrible  one.  Between  the  years  1655 
and  167 1  alone,  the  corsairs  had  plundered  eighteen  cities,  four 
towns   and   more   than   thirty-five   villages  —  Cumana   once, 


2SO  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

Cumanagote  twice,  Maracaibo  and  Gibraltar  twice,  Rio  de  la 
Hacha  five  times,  Santa  Marta  three  times,  Tolu  eight  times, 
Porto  Bello  once,  Chagres  twice,  Panama  once,  Santa  Catalina 
twice,  Truxillo  once,  Campeche  three  times,  Santiago  de  Cuba 
once,  and  other  towns  and  villages  in  Cuba,  Hispaniola  and 
Central  America  for  thirty  leagues  inland  inmunerable  times. 
And  this  tale  of  robbery  and  outrage  does  not  embrace  the  expedi- 
tions against  Porto  Bello,  Campeche,  Cartagena  and  other 
Spanish  ports  made  after  1671.  The  Marquis  of  Barinas  in  1685 
estimated  the  losses  of  the  Spaniards  at  the  hands  of  the  buc- 
caneers since  the  accession  of  Charles  II  to  be  60,000,000  crowns; 
and  these  figures  covered  merely  the  destruction  of  towns  and 
treasure,  without  including  the  loss  of  merchant  ships  and 
frigates.^  The  most  celebrated  of  the  expeditions  was  of  course 
that  which,  under  Henry  Morgan,  captured  and  sacked  the  city  of 
Panama  in  January,  1671.  It  was  by  such  means,  coupled  with 
the  trade  of  the  interloper,  that  the  fountains  of  Spanish-Ameri- 
can commerce  were  dried  up,  not  by  the  destruction  of  the  silver 
fleets. 

The  Enghsh  policy  of  "  forcing  a  trade,"  however,  proved  a 
complete  failure,  and  after  1670  was  definitely  abandoned  for  one 
of  conciliation.  On  July  18  of  that  year,  just  a  month  before 
Morgan  sailed  from  Jamaica  for  Panama,  a  treaty  was  concluded 
at  Madrid  by  Sir  William  Godolphin  for  "  composing  differences, 
restraining  depredations,  and  establishing  peace"  in  America. 
No  trading  privileges  in  the  West  Indies  were  granted  by  either 
Crown,  but  the  king  of  Spain  for  the  first  time  acknowledged  the 
sovereignty  of  the  English  king  over  all  islands,  colonies,  etc.,  in 
the  New  World  then  in  his  possession,  and  the  ships  of  either 
nation,  if  in  distress,  were  promised  entertainment  and  succor  in 
the  ports  of  the  other. ^  Thereafter,  although  an  occasional 
colonial  governor  found  his  cupidity  too  strong  for  him,  the  buc- 
caneers were  driven  more  and  more  into  open  piracy.  There  were 
from  the  beginning  reasons  which  made  it  dangerous  to  treat  the 
freebooters  too  curtly.   Privateering  maintained  a  great  number 

1  Fernandez  Duro,  op.  cit.,  v,  p.  310. 

*  Record  Ofl&ce  (London),  State  Papers.  Spain,  vol.  57,  f.  76;  vol.  58,  f.  27. 


CORSARIOS  LUTERANOS  251 

of  seamen  in  Jamaica,  by  whom  the  island  was  protected  in  the 
event  of  a  war,  without  the  immediate  need  of  a  naval  force.  If 
denied  the  freedom  of  Jamaican  ports,  they  resorted  to  the  islands 
of  other  nations,  especially  Tortuga,  and  became  a  potential 
danger  instead.  An  exactly  analogous  situation  confronted  the 
French  governors  of  Saint  Domingue,  and  although  "  the  course  " 
was  also  prohibited  by  Louis  XIV  a  few  years  later,  not  till  the 
end  of  the  century  did  this  irregular  mode  of  warfare  disappear 
from  the  French  Antilles. 

Armed  vessels  to  protect  the  coasts  of  America  are  mentioned 
from  the  early  days  of  Spanish  occupation.  But  they  were  never 
maintained  with  the  consistency  and  regularity  which  the  ever- 
present  peril  demanded.  As  early  as  April,  15 13,  a  royal  cedula  to 
the  officials  of  the  Casa  de  Contratacion  bade  them  send  two 
caravels  to  guard  the  coasts  of  Cuba.^  Later,  in  the  thirties  and 
forties,  when  French  corsairs  became  so  fatally  active  in  the  West 
Indies,  there  were  repeated  and  urgent  requests  from  the  colonial 
authorities  to  furnish  ships  for  their  defense.  In  1537  one  of  the 
oficiales  reales,  Diego  Cavallero,  wrote  to  the  king  urging  that 
three  caravels,  well  armed,  sheathed  with  lead,  and  each  carrying 
fifty  men,  be  sent  to  ply  continuously  along  the  northern  shores  of 
Cuba  and  Hispaniola.^  In  July,  1543,  the  president  and  judges  of 
the  audiencia  at  San  Domingo  begged  for  two  galleys  and  a 
brigantine,  to  scour  the  seas  in  conjunction  with  two  other  vessels 
supplied  by  the  colony.  And  similar  representations  were  made 
in  1547  and  1549-^ 

Early  in  1552,  as  related  in  a  previous  chapter,  the  Crown 
decided  for  the  moment  to  dispense  with  convoys  for  the  merchant 
fleets,  and  depend  on  two  armadas  with  headquarters  one  at 
Seville  and  the  other  at  San  Domingo,  to  keep  the  paths  of  naviga- 
tion clear  of  pirates.  A  small  armadilla  was  in  the  same  year  got 
ready  in  Hispaniola,  consisting  of  three  armed  vessels  and  a 
patache,  and  carrying  300  men;  but  soon  after  putting  to  sea  it 
was  wrecked  on  the  shores  of  the  island  by  a  terrific  hurricane,  and 
130  men  drowned.    Its  commander  was  Cristobal  Colon,  grand- 

*  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  vi,  p.  3.  '  Ibid.,  vol.  xxv,  nos.  8,  11,  12,  13. 

'  N.M.C.,  vol.  xxi,  no.  10. 


252  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

son  of  the  discoverer.^  Another  small  squadron  equipped  in 
Spain  for  the  protection  of  Hispaniola  was  not  allowed  to  sail 
till  three  years  later.  In  1555  it  departed  under  command  of 
Juan  Tello  de  Guzman,  five  vessels  ranging  from  60  to  250 
tons,  returned  within  a  year  and  went  out  again  in  1557  in  convoy 
of  one  of  the  fleets.  Soon  after  it  was  dismantled  at  San  Do- 
mingo, the  ships  sold  and  the  men  dispersed.  In  1568  we  hear 
that  Pedro  Menendez  de  Aviles,  adelantado  of  Florida  and 
scourge  of  the  French  Protestants  there,  was  in  the  Indies  with  a 
fleet  of  galleons  for  coast-guard  duty.  But  it  is  evident  that  his 
squadron  was  really  the  armada  de  la  carrera.  In  1570  he  re- 
turned from  America  escorting  the  two  fleets  of  New  Spain  and 
Tierra  Firme,  he  was  performing  a  similar  duty  in  1571-72,  and  in 
the  years  1573-74  he  was  apparently  policing  the  seas  between 
Andalusia  and  the  Azores. 

Up  to  this  time  the  defense  of  the  American  coasts  seems 
usually  to  have  been  left  to  the  armadas  de  la  carrera,  which 
sometimes  tarried  in  the  West  Indies  to  hunt  out  intruders,  but 
more  generally  were  called  upon  for  convoy  duty  back  and  forth 
across  the  Atlantic.  After  the  death  of  Pedro  Menendez  in  1574, 
it  came  to  be  recognized  that  such  measures  were  inadequate. 
The  galleons  were  too  heavy  to  pursue  the  Hghter,  swifter  vessels 
of  the  corsairs,  and  their  presence  in  the  Indies  too  irregular  and 
uncertain.  The  depredations  of  the  freebooters  suffered  little 
interruption.  In  1575,  therefore,  it  was  proposed  in  the  Council 
that  two  groups  of  oared  galleys  be  permanently  maintained  in 
colonial  waters,  one  with  headquarters  at  Cartagena,  to  watch  the 
coast  from  Honduras  to  the  Windward  Isles,  the  other  stationed 
about  the  four  larger  islands  of  Porto  Rico,  Hispaniola,  Cuba,  and 
Jamaica,  cruising  also  along  the  shores  of  Yucatan,  and  in  the 
Florida  strait  as  far  as  Cape  Hatteras.  Each  group  was  to  consist 
of  two  galleys  and  a  pinnace,  the  former  lateen-rigged  vessels  of 
300  tons  each  propelled  by  both  sail  and  oar,  with  a  bank  of  20 
oars  to  a  side,  and  carrying  50  seamen  and  150  soldiers.  Four 
large  gims  were  to  be  placed  in  the  prow,  and  two  in  the  stern, 
with  a  broadside  of  eight  smaller  pieces. ^  This  type  of  ship,  of 
*  N.  M.  C,  vol.  xxi,  no.  35.  '  Fernandez  Duro,  op.  cit.,  ii,  pp.  473, 475- 


CORSARIOS  LUTERANOS  253 

very  light  draught,  was  found  by  long  experience  to  be  the  most 
efficient  for  such  service,  and  was  revived  for  use  against  the  buc- 
caneers just  a  century  later.  How  soon  the  scheme  was  put  into 
practice  is  uncertain.  In  1578  we  hear  of  two  galleys  and  a  sloop 
being  sent  out  to  Cartagena,  in  1582  of  two  more  for  the  defense 
of  Hispaniola,  and  in  1586  of  four  galleys,  two  for  Hispaniola  and 
two  for  Tierra  Firme,  their  predecessors  having  been  cast  away  in 
a  storm.  In  the  latter  year  a  pair  was  equipped  for  headquarters 
at  Havana,  and  the  cost  of  their  upkeep  settled  upon  the  Mexican 
treasury.  Such  small  flotillas  came  to  be  known  specifically  as  the 
"  armadas  de  barlovento,"  or  windward  squadrons. 

In  the  early  years  of  the  seventeenth  century,  an  armada  of 
four  galleons  of  400  to  500  tons  burden  and  two  pataches  was 
urged  in  the  Council  of  the  Indies  as  a  means  of  stopping  the 
illicit  traffic  of  the  Dutch  and  English  with  the  Spanish  Main. 
The  idea  was  not  accepted,  perhaps  because  of  the  expense,  and 
in  1 613  or  1 6 14  was  brought  forward  again,  with  presumably  no 
better  success.^  A  much  more  elaborate  scheme  was  proposed  in 
1633 :  ^^^^  "guardacostas''  be  built  and  maintained  in  the  colonies, 
four  for  Cartagena,  four  for  New  Spain,  two  apiece  for  Santa 
Marta,  Caracas,  Porto  Rico,  San  Domingo,  and  Havana,  and  one 
for  Rio  de  la  Hacha,  Maracaibo,  Cumana,  Margarita,  Jamaica, 
and  Honduras.  The  cost  was  reckoned  at  250,000  ducats.  Not 
till  the  following  decade,  apparently,  was  an  armada  de  bar- 
lovento  actually  reestablished,  composed  of  twelve  ships  and  two 
pataches,  and  supported  by  colonial  funds.  It  retained  its 
identity  only  a  few  years,  till  1647,  when  it  was  diverted  to  other 
uses,  first  to  convoy  the  fleets  back  to  Spain,  and  then  to  re- 
enforce  the  royal  navy.^ 

Although  the  Council  often  discussed  the  reconstituting  of  the 
squadron,  for  another  fifteen  years  the  seas  and  coasts  of  Spanish 
America  were  left  exposed  to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  corsairs. 
In  1662-63,  with  the  new  dangers  arising  from  the  Enghsh  occu- 
pation of  Jamaica,  the  construction  of  an  armada  de  barlovento 
became  more  pressing;  and  in  the  foUowing  year,  after  an  elabo- 

1  B.  M.,  Add.  Mss.  13,975,  ff-  27,  245. 
'  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  5,  par.  4. 


254  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

rate  report  on  the  state  of  the  Indies  and  the  best  means  of  defend- 
ing them,  a  squadron  was  created  of  six  small  men-of-war  and  one 
caravel,  under  command  of  Agustin  de  Diustegui.^  But  as 
happened  so  frequently  before,  the  exigencies  of  the  government 
at  home  led  to  its  incorporation  in  the  royal  navy,  and  not  till 
June,  1667,  was  it  finally  dispatched  to  its  original  destination, 
now  reduced  in  number  to  five  ships. 

Although  the  raids  of  Mansfield  and  Morgan  in  Central 
America,  and  the  visits  of  the  Frenchman,  TOlonais,  to  Maracaibo, 
had  redoubled  the  clamors  of  the  colonists  for  protection,  when 
the  fleet  actually  appeared  the  viceroy  of  Mexico  complained  that 
the  ships  were  too  large  and  too  expensive  for  pursuing  buccaneers 
among  the  channels  and  cays  where  they  were  accustomed  to  hide. 
And  in  1668  the  two  heaviest  returned  to  Spain  with  the  king's 
revenues  of  that  year,  leaving  three  behind  with  the  almirante, 
Alonso  de  Campos.  It  was  this  emasculated  armada  which  was 
destroyed  by  Morgan  at  the  entrance  to  Lake  Maracaibo  in  1669. 
The  viceroy  sent  the  unfortunate  admiral  a  prisoner  to  Spain, 
although  the  parsimony  of  the  viceroy  was  the  true  cause  of  his 
mischance.  Alonso,  however,  was  exonerated  by  the  Junta  de 
Guerra,  and  indeed  commended  for  his  valor.^  Five  years  later, 
according  to  Fernandez  Duro,  there  were  again  three  armadas  de 
guarda  on  the  coasts  of  America,  one  at  Cartagena,  another  at 
Porto  Bello,  and  a  third  in  the  Gulf  of  Campeche.^ 

Squadrons  for  the  protection  of  American  commerce  were  the 
occasion  for  introducing  several  new  taxes  into  Spanish  America. 
In  May,  1 62 7,  the  Crown  requested  the  two  viceroyalties  to  join  in 
a  "union  de  las  armas  catolicas"  for  maintaining  the  forces  of  the 
monarchy.  They  were  asked  to  contribute  for  fifteen  years  an 
annual  subsidy  of  600,000  ducats,  with  which  to  construct  fifteen 
galleons  and  three  pataches,  some  to  cruise  continuously  in  the 
Atlantic  from  the  English  Channel  to  Gibraltar,  the  rest  to  con- 
voy the  flotas  and  protect  the  coasts  of  the  West  Indies.  Mexico 
was  to  provide  250,000,  Peru  the  remainder.  The  colonists  agreed 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  5,  par.  4;  B.  M.,  Add.  Mss.  13,992,  f.  134. 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  5,  par.  8,  9;  Fernandez  Duro,  op.  cit.,  v,  p.  171. 
»  Ibid.,  p.  181. 


CORSARIOS  LUTERANOS  255 

on  condition  that  the  impost  should  cease  the  moment  its  proceeds 
were  applied  to  any  but  the  original  purpose;  but  the  condition 
was  not  observed  by  the  Crown,  and  the  tax  was  renewed  every 
fifteen  years  till  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  It  was 
apparently  collected  as  a  tax  on  sales,  and  called  the  Derecho  de 
Union  de  Armas. ^ 

Ten  years  later,  in  1636,  the  government  began  to  treat  for 
another  impost  in  support  of  an  armada  de  barlovento.  The 
viceroy  of  New  Spain,  the  Marquis  of  Cadereyta,  received  orders 
to  build  and  keep  at  sea  a  fleet  of  fourteen  vessels,  and  to  suggest 
to  the  colonists  that  privileges  and  concessions  might  be  forth- 
coming if  they  lent  their  aid.  The  Mexicans  offered  to  contribute 
200,000  pesos  a  year  as  long  as  the  armada  was  used  for  the 
protection  of  New  Spain  and  the  islands,  reserved  the  right  to 
decide  whence  the  money  should  come,  and  presented  a  long  list 
of  demands  upon  the  king's  favor.  Among  other  things,  they 
asked  for  entire  freedom  of  trade  with  Peru  (it  had  been  pro- 
hibited in  1634) ,  a  double  "  permiso  "  of  exchange  with  the  Philip- 
pines, perpetual  encomiendas  of  Indians,  and  restrictions  upon 
the  increase  of  monasteries  and  the  acquisition  of  property  by  the 
Church.  The  viceroy,  in  December,  1637,  agreed  to  the  condi- 
tions relative  to  the  administration  of  the  tax,  but  reserved  the 
rest  for  royal  approval.  The  Mexicans  soon  discovered  that  they 
had  repeated  the  fatal  Castilian  mistake  of  permitting  supply  to 
precede  redress,  and  secured  few  if  any  of  the  privileges  asked  for. 
The  200,000  pesos  were  obtained  by  raising  the  alcabala  from  2  to 
4  per  cent,  and  hke  the  derecho  de  union  de  armas  became  a  per- 
petual contribution.  In  the  eighteenth  century  these  two  taxes 
with  the  alcabala  were  combined  in  a  6  per  cent  impost  on  sales. ^ 

1  B.  M.,  Add.  Mss.  13,975,  f.  27:  "  Representaci6n  del  ayuntamiento  de 
Mexico  sobre  .  .  .  alcabalas,"  1753.  Of  the  250,000  ducats  assigned  to  the 
northern  viceroyalty,  Guatemala  contributed  but  4000,  which  is  sufl&cient  commen- 
tary on  the  relative  wealth  and  resources  of  Mexico  and  Central  America.  These 
4000  ducats  were  to  be  raised  by  a  tax  on  certain  imports  and  exports,  and  any 
deficit  met  by  an  increase  of  the  alcabala.  MiUa  and  Gomez  Carillo,  AmSrica 
Central,  ii,  p.  269. 

*  B.  M.,  Add.  Mss.  13,975,  f.  27;  Sol6rzano,  Politica  Indiana  (ed.  Valenzuela, 
1776),  lib.  vi,  cap.  8,  par.  20. 


2S6  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  till  the  last  quarter  of  the  seventeenth 
century  the  Spanish  government  consistently  refused  to  issue 
letters  of  marque  to  privateers  to  retaliate  upon  the  English, 
French,  and  Dutch  in  the  West  Indies.  Such  a  recourse  would 
probably  have  been  the  most  efficacious  against  the  buccaneers, 
as  well  as  most  economical,  for  it  would  have  filled  the  American 
seas  with  armed  vessels  without  the  expenditure  of  a  ducat  from 
the  royal  coffers.  But  it  was  bitterly  opposed  by  the  Casa  de 
Contratacion  and  the  merchants  of  Seville,  for  fear  that  such  com- 
missions would  lead  to  an  infringement  of  the  commercial  monop- 
oly. In  the  year  1666,  in  view  of  the  decay  of  the  Spanish  marine, 
one  of  the  councillors  of  the  Almirantazgo,  or  mercantile  gild,  of 
Flanders  sought  permission  on  certain  conditions  to  send  priva- 
teers from  Flemish  ports  to  the  Indies  to  punish  buccaneers  and 
defend  the  coasts  of  Spanish  America.  And  in  1669  analogous 
proposals  were  made  by  certain  "  armadores  "  belonging  to  the 
seaport  towns  of  Biscay.  They  offered  to  sail  with  six  or  eight 
ships  to  America,  provided  they  might  also  dispatch  annually  two 
supply  ships  for  the  fleet  of.400  tons  each,  partly  laden  with  mer- 
chandise and  exempt  from  registration  or  the  payment  of  duties 
in  Spain  or  the  colonies.  The  fleet  was  to  be  disposed  of  in  the 
Indies  at  the  end  of  the  year,  and  another  of  equal  size  sent  out  to 
take  its  place.  The  ulterior  purpose  of  such  a  scheme  was  too 
transparently  obvious  to  escape  the  suspicious  eyes  of  the  judges 
of  the  Casa,  and  the  offer  was  refused,  as  was  that  of  the  Flemish 
Almirantazgo.  1 

In  the  end,  the  importunate  representations  of  the  authorities 
in  America  overcame  the  scruples  of  the  India  Council,  and  in 
February,  1674,  an  ordinance  appeared  providing  for  the  issue  of 
letters  of  marque  under  very  liberal  conditions.  Periaguas,  or 
small,  flat-bottomed  galleys,  were  to  be  constructed  for  use  in 
shoal  waters.  They  were  to  be  ninety  feet  long,  and  from  sixteen 
to  eighteen  wide,  with  a  draft  of  only  a  foot  and  a  half,  and 
were  to  be  equipped  with  a  long  gun  in  the  bow  and  four  smaller 
pieces  in  the  stern.  They  were  to  be  propelled  by  both  sail  and 

1  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  5,  par.  11-20. 


CORSARIOS  LUTERANOS  257 

oar,  and  to  carry  one  hundred  and  twenty  men.'  Their  activities 
became  very  annoying  to  English  interlopers,  especially  to  the  log- 
wood cutters  in  the  Gulf  of  Campeche;  but  as  the  logwood  trade 
was  itself  irregular,  and  English  pirates  still  remained  abroad  in 
spite  of  their  disavowal  by  the  government,  there  was  little  just 
ground  for  complaint. 

>  A.  de  I.,  139.  I.  16,  lib.  41,  p.  324;  Fernandez  Duro,  op.  ciU,  v,  p.  181. 


CHAPTER  XI 

SfflPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  (I) 

Vessels  plying  in  the  India  navigation  had,  in  theory,  to  be  of 
Spanish  ownership  and  construction  and  manned  by  Spanish  sea- 
men. The  requirement  of  Spanish  ownership,  or  at  least  of  imme- 
diate Spanish  possession,  was  from  the  time  of  Philip  II  with  fair 
consistency  lived  up  to.  The  other  conditions  were  probably  never 
seriously  enforced.  During  the  reign  of  the  Emperor,  when 
colonial  trade  was  free  to  non-Spaniards,  it  is  natural  to  suppose 
that  India  ships  were  owned  and  manned  by  Germans  and  Italians 
who  took  advantage  of  this  Uberty.  Indeed,  in  days  when  the 
merchant  so  often  sailed  as  master  or  captain  of  his  own  vessel, 
freedom  to  trade  and  freedom  to  navigate  could  with  difficulty  be 
kept  distinct  and  separate.  And  from  the  beginning  foreigners 
naturalized  by  long  residence  in  the  peninsula  enjoyed  the  two- 
fold privilege.  We  read  in  Hakluyt  that  in  the  flota  of  1555  a  cer- 
tain Robert  Tomson  sailed  in  a  ship  belonging  to  John  Sweeting, 
an  Englishman  settled  and  married  in  Cadiz,  and  commanded  by 
his  English  son-in-law,  also  resident  in  Cadiz,  named  Leonard 
Chilton.^  And  in  1 562  another  Anglo-Spaniard,  Roger  Bodenham, 
residing  with  a  wife  in  Seville,  accompanied  the  fleet  of  Pedro 
Menendez  de  Aviles  as  master  of  a  London  ship  of  160  to  180  tons, 
named  the  Barke  Fox? 

In  Charles'  later  years,  however,  when  he  was  pressed  to  debar 
all  but  Spanish  subjects  from  this  commerce,  exclusion  from 
navigation  was  a  logical  and  necessary  consequence;  for  the  em- 
plo5mient  of  foreign  ships  and  masters  would  have  involved  their 
participation  in  trade,  if  only  to  the  extent  of  the  freights  col- 
lected and  the  incidental  profits  of  ship's  officers.  It  would  also 
have  left  wide  open  a  door  for  the  entrance  of  unlicensed  strangers 

*  HaMuyt,  Navigations  (ed.  of  1904),  ix,  p.  341. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  359.    The  freights  both  ways  amounted  to  over  13,000  ducats. 

258 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  259 

into  the  colonies.  The  return  to  greater  strictness  probably  dates 
from  the  year  1538,  for  a  cedula  of  December  6  reads: 

Nuestros  oficiales  que  residis  en  la  ciudad  de  Sevilla  en  la  casa  de  la  con- 
tratacion  delas  Indias  .  .  .  por  si  y  en  su  nombre  de  todos  los  mercaderes  y 
tratantes  en  las  nuestras  Indias,  me  ban  hecho  relacion,  que  a  nuestro  ser- 
vicio  y  al  bien  de  los  dichos  sus  partes  y  de  todos  los  tratantes  en  las  dichas 
Indias  convenia  que  de  aqui  adelante  ningun  estrangero  destos  reynos 
anduviesse  en  la  navegacion  de  las  dichas  nuestras  Indias,  porque  por 
experiencia  avia  parecido  los  danos  que  se  avian  seguido  .  .  .  vos  mando  que 
de  aqui  adelante  no  consentais  ni  deis  lugar  que  ningun  estrangero  destos 
nuestros  reynos  ande  en  la  navegacion  de  las  nuestras  Indias,  ni  los  dexais  ni 
consintais  passar  a  ellas  por  marineros,  ni  por  otro  ningun  oficio.  Y  .  .  .  que 
ningun  maestre  ni  otra  persona  los  passe  ni  traiga  en  su  nao,  so  pena  de  cien 
mil  maravedis.* 

Foreigners  not  subjects  of  the  Emperor  were  of  course  from  the 
first  prohibited  from  owning  India  ships,  except  by  special  dis- 
pensation of  the  Crown. 

The  condition  that  India  vessels  be  of  Spanish  construction 
probably  goes  back  to  the  time  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  for  like 
their  Tudor  contemporaries  they  were  greatly  interested  in  the 
increase  of  shipbuilding  and  the  creation  of  a  mercantile  marine. 
As  early  as  1498  they  had  offered  an  annual  premium  to  those  who 
built  and  maintained  ships  of  600  tons  or  over.^  In  1500  Span- 
iards were  forbidden  to  lade  in  foreign  bottoms  if  native  vessels 
were  available,  and  in  the  following  year  they  were  enjoined, 
under  severest  penalties,  not  to  sell  or  hypothecate  their  own  ships 
to  strangers,  even  if  the  latter  were  naturalized  subjects.^  It  is 
very  likely,  however,  that  some  of  the  vessels  which  sailed  in  the 
earlier  expeditions  to  the  New  World  were  of  Genoese  or  other 
foreign  build;  and  from  the  time  of  Philip  II  the  inclusion  of  such 
ships  in  the  flotas  was  not  uncommon. 

As  the  Crown  always  reserved  the  right  to  grant  particular 
licenses  to  foreign  vessels,  whether  for  lack  of  native  ships  or  to 
fill  its  exchequer,  it  was  without  doubt  the  chief  offender  against 
the  spirit  of  the  earlier  ordinances.    Although  the  prohibitions 

*  Encinas,  i,  p.  441. 

*  Recop.,  lib.  vii,  tit.  10,  ley  3.  In  the  reign  of  Philip  11  bounties  were  given  for 
vessels  of  300  tons  and  over. 

»  Ihid.,  ley  6. 


26o  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

were  frequently  renewed,  especially  toward  the  end  of  the  cen- 
tury, as  frequently  they  were  rendered  of  no  effect.  In  1 562 ,  as  we 
have  seen,  Roger  Bodenham  was  master  of  an  English  ship  in 
the  fleet  of  Pedro  Menendez  de  Aviles.  A  royal  cedula  of  May, 
1 571,  expressly  stated  that  "  ureas  esterlinas  "  and  "filibotes" 
might  be  admitted  to  the  India  navigation,  if  a  sufficient  number 
of  Spanish  vessels  was  not  to  be  had;  and  in  1599  the  trade  with 
Hispaniola  was  declared  open  to  these  foreign-built  ships,  pro- 
vided they  were  owned  and  manned  by  Spaniards  and  sailed  with 
the  New  Spain  fleets. ^  In  1608  the  Council  of  the  Indies  pressed 
upon  the  king  the  objections  to  these  innovations;  and  five  years 
later, in  a  decree  of  March,  16 13,  the  Duke  of  Lerma resolved  upon 
the  punctual  observance  of  the  ancient  rules  of  the  Casa,  so  that 
native  builders  might  be  encouraged  and  protected.^  Yet,  owing 
to  the  progressive  decay  of  the  Spanish  merchant  marine  conse- 
quent upon  the  disastrous  wars  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and 
the  more  rapid  progress  of  other  nations,  notably  the  Dutch  and 
English,  in  the  art  of  ship  design,  most  of  the  merchant  vessels 
composing  the  India  fleets  came  from  foreign  yards.  By  1662  the 
Council  had  sought  refuge  in  a  philosophical  resignation  worthy 
of  the  situation.  It  laid  down  the  broad  principle  that  in  pursuing 
the  public  weal  account  must  also  be  taken  of  the  exigencies  of 
the  moment.  There  were  occasions  when  it  was  necessary  to  dis- 
regard the  strictest  of  laws.  Now  without  doubt  many  things  had 
changed  since  the  formulation  of  the  ordinances  respecting  Ameri- 
can commerce.  And  when  the  merchants  of  Seville,  therefore, 
demanded  licenses  which  were  contrary  to  the  law,  the  Council 
found  itself  obliged  by  the  very  force  of  circumstances  to  consent; 
for  it  was  necessary  above  all  else  to  maintain  relations  between 
Spain  and  the  Indies,  or  see  the  bonds  dissolved  which  bound  the 
colonists  to  the  mother  country  and  to  the  Holy  Catholic  Church.^ 
It  was  just  as  impossible  to  shut  out  foreign  sailors  and  soldiers 
from  the  India  navigation,  when  foreign  ships  had  to  be  hired  and 
Spanish  seamen  were  insufficient  to  man  the  fleets.  In  the  mid- 
dle of  the  sixteenth  century,  with  the  change  in  royal  policy  which 

1  Antunez  y  Acevedo,  p.  44.  '  Ihid.,  p.  43. 

»  A.  de  I.,  153.  6.  19.    Consulta  of  June  17,  1662. 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  26 1 

excluded  non-Spaniards  more  strictly  from  the  colonies,  they  were 
also  forbidden  to  serve  on  Atlantic  ships.  But  the  prohibition  was 
not  applied  to  able-bodied  seamen  already  so  employed,  for  fear 
that  they  might  be  dispersed  and  carry  their  knowledge  of  Span- 
ish America  to  other  lands.  Even  so  partial  a  restriction,  however, 
soon  broke  down.  A  royal  decree  of  January,  1590,  admitted  any 
strangers  of  Roman  faith,  save  only  the  English;  another  of 
April,  1595,  admitted  as  masters  or  pilots  in  the  New  Spain  fleet 
all  but  the  English,  French,  and  Dutch;  and  similar  decrees  are 
frequent  in  the  first  half  of  the  following  century.^ 

Even  in  local,  intercolonial  trade  in  the  New  World,  a  parallel 
situation  was  soon  apparent.  From  a  cedula  to  the  viceroy  of 
Peru,  dated  July,  1572,  we  gather  that  the  employment  of  for- 
eigners as  masters  and  pilots  for  vessels  on  the  Pacific  was  already 
necessary,  for  lack  of  competent  Spaniards.  A  large  bond  (4,000 
to  50,000  pesos) ,  however,  was  required,  and  none  were  permitted 
to  return  to  Europe  without  special  royal  license,  because  with 
their  knowledge  they  were  in  a  position  to  guide  corsairs  to  those 
regions.2 

Atlantic  ships  in  the  first  fifty  years  after  the  Discovery  were 
astonishingly  small,  probably  rarely  exceeding  200  tons  burden. 
Indeed  at  that  time  the  mariners  of  Cantabria,  the  best  in  Spain, 
considered  a  vessel  of  200  tons  the  prototype  of  the  ship  of  the 
period,  whether  for  war  or  for  trade.  Such  was  certainly  the 
opinion  of  Alonso  de  Chaves,  pilot  major  of  the  India  House  and 
one  of  the  most  learned  Spanish  navigators  of  his  day.  For  dis- 
covery and  exploration,  where  capacity  was  not  a  desideratum,  a 
vessel  of  100  tons  was  preferred,  and  most  of  the  ships  so  em- 
ployed were  apparently  of  about  that  size.  Of  the  three  vessels  of 
Columbus,  only  the  largest  was  of  120  to  130  tons,  a  clumsy  boat 
almost  as  broad  as  long,  built  with  one  deck,  high  poop  and  fore- 
castle and  three  masts,  two  with  square  sails,  the  mizzenmast 
lateen-rigged.  The  other  ships  were  tiny,  open  caravels  of  40  and 
50  tons  respectively,  decked  only  at  the  extremities.  Colimabus' 
flagship  on  the  second  voyage  was  said  to  be  of  400  tons,  but  the 

1  Encinas,  i,  pp.  459,  461.  *  Ibid.,  p.  451. 


262  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

other  sixteen  vessels  comprising  the  squadron  must  have  been 
very  much  smaller.  In  1495  the  Crown  contracted  with  Juanoto 
Berardi,  a  Florentine  resident  in  Seville,  for  the  hire  of  twelve 
ships  to  be  freighted  for  the  Indies  on  the  king's  account.  The 
combined  tonnage  was  to  be  only  900.1  The  ordinances  of  July  14, 
1522,  governing  the  armament  and  inspection  of  India  vessels, 
fixed  the  minimum  size  at  80  tons;  ^  and  as  late  as  the  reign  of 
Philip  rV  trading  ships  of  100  tons  or  even  less  frequently  made 
the  voyage  to  minor  colonial  ports.  A  cedula  of  March,  1609, 
however,  decreed  that  no  ship  of  less  than  200  tons  should  be 
admitted  to  the  American  flotas.^ 

Spaniards  in  the  early  sixteenth  century  and  even  before  had 
certainly  been  constructing  sailing  vessels  of  larger  capacity,  as 
were  other  maritime  peoples  of  western  Europe.^  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella,  as  we  have  seen,  offered  bounties  for  ships  of  600  tons 
and  over.  In  1493  ^  squadron  got  together  in  Biscay,  apparently 
for  Columbus'  second  voyage,  consisted  of  a  carrack  of  over  1000 
tons  (perhaps  of  Genoese  origin),  and  four  ships  ranging  from  150 
tons  to  450.  But  the  armada  was  sent  instead  to  the  coast  of 
Granada  to  transport  Muley  Boabdil,  last  of  the  Moorish  kings, 
and  his  companions  to  Africa.^  From  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  larger  vessels  in  the  India  navigation  were  not  uncom- 
mon. A  cedula  issued  in  May  of  1557  specifically  excluded  those 
exceeding  400  tons,  and  three  years'  grace  were  allowed  to  Span- 
iards employing  ships  above  this  maximum  to  withdraw  them 
from  the  American  trade.^  The  chief  reason  for  the  limitation  was 
without  doubt  the  difficulty  presented  by  the  sand  bar  at  San 
Lucar,  which  vessels  of  over  200  tons  were  unable  to  negotiate 
without  transshipping  part  of  their  cargo;   and  from  1560  on- 

1  Viajesy  ii,  p.  169. 

'  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  ix,  p.  143. 

'  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  24,  par.  5. 

*  James  IV  of  Scotland  had  four  ships  in  his  navy,  the  Mitchell,  Margaret, 
James,  and  another,  of  300  tons  each.  And  the  Regent,  built  for  Henry  VII  in 
1487-90,  was  probably  of  600  tons  burden.  Letters  and  Papers  of  the  Reign  of  Henry 
VIII,  i,  no.  3359;  ii,  no.  3330;  Oppenheim,  Naval  Accounts  and  Inventories,  p. 
xxi. 

'  Viajes,  ii,  pp.  79,  81. 

•  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  6,  par.  12. 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  263 

wards  in  the  records  of  the  Casa  petitions  from  masters  for  per- 
mission to  make  this  transshipment  become  increasingly  frequent. 
In  the  reign  of  Philip  II,  Juan  de  Escalante  de  Mendoza  regarded 
the  ship  of  not  over  500  tons  as  the  ideal  for  a  man-of-war,^  and 
the  galleons  which  crossed  to  the  Indies  probably  rarely  surpassed 
that  capacity.  As  mentioned  before,  Atlantic  ships,  whether  of 
war  or  of  trade,  were  limited  by  a  cedula  of  December,  1628,  to  a 
displacement  of  550  tons;  yet  in  the  later  seventeenth  century 
galleons  of  700  and  even  1000  tons  were  not  unusual. 

Vessels  which  crossed  the  Atlantic  were  of  several  quite  distinct 
classes.  The  use  of  the  galley  had  begun  to  diminish  in  Castile 
early  in  the  fifteenth  century,  and  virtually  disappeared  in  the 
sixteenth,  although  in  Aragon,  with  its  Mediterranean  commerce, 
this  type  persisted  for  a  much  longer  time.  The  early  trans- 
Atlantic  ships  were  caravels,  light  boats  with  somewhat  finer 
lines,  and  at  most  a  single  deck.  Ordinarily  provided  with  lateen 
sails,  they  were  faster  and  sailed  closer  to  the  wind  than  the  larger, 
heavier  "  nao,"  which  carried  a  square  rig  and  topsails.  There 
were  two  kinds  of  caravel,  the  Portuguese,  equipped  exclusively 
with  lateen  sails  and  employed  by  the  intrepid  mariners  who  first 
explored  the  west  coast  of  Africa  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope ; 
and  the  Castilian,  which  often  combined  a  square-rigged  foremast 
with  lateen-rigged  main  and  mizzenmasts.  Later,  however,  al- 
most any  vessel  of  about  100  tons,  whatever  its  nautical  char- 
acteristics, was  designated  a  caravel. 

The  common  type  of  Atlantic  ship  from  the  middle  of  the  six- 
teenth century  was  the  ^'  galeon."  It  was  apparently  longer  and 
narrower  than  the  medieval  tub  called  the  "  nao,"  but  shorter, 
broader  and  higher  than  the  galley,  from  which  it  derives  its 
name;  and  in  the  endeavor  to  increase  capacity,  it  was  developed 
into  a  notoriously  unseaworthy  vessel.  Constructed  with  keel  and 
beam  in  the  proportion  of  three  to  one  or  less,  and  with  tower- 
ing *' castles"  at  either  extremity,  its  sailing  qualities  were  of  the 
very  worst.  It  had  one  or  two  decks,  depending  upon  its  size, 
although  in  the  later  seventeenth  century  galleons  of  three  decks 
were  built  for  purposes  of  war. 

*  Itinerario  de  Navegacidn,  1575. 


264  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

There  were  also  "  ureas  ^'  or  storeships,  slow,  extremely  short 
and  round,  and  flat-bottomed,  constructed  entirely  with  a  view  to 
capacity,  rigged  like  a  ship,  but  an  easy  prey  to  contrary  winds 
and  useless  for  defense  against  a  foe.  In  the  seventeenth  century 
great  Portuguese  carracks  were  likewise  occasionally  found  in  the 
American  fleets.  Numerous  kinds  of  smaller  vessels,  flyboats 
(filibotes),  pinks  (pingues) ,  polacres  (polacras) ,  tartans  (tartanas), 
bilanders  (balandras),  pinnaces  (pinazas),  and  sloops  (barcos), 
some  of  foreign  origin,  others  Spanish,  ranging  from  40  to  150  and 
sometimes  200  tons,  were  not  infrequently  used  for  trading  voy- 
ages, but  more  commonly  as  advice  boats  in  the  fleets,  where  they 
were  known  generically  as  "  pataches." 

The  mariners  most  closely  associated  with  the  progress  of 
Spanish  naval  construction  in  the  sixteenth  century  were  the 
brothers  Alvaro  and  Alonso  Bazan,  and  the  adelantado  of  Florida, 
Pedro  Menendez  de  Aviles.  Alvaro  Bazan  was  the  first  to  em- 
ploy in  the  India  navigation  large  galleons  of  his  own  propriety 
for  the  transport  of  merchandise  and  treasure.^  He  invented  a 
new  type  of  galleon,  and  imitated  from  the  Genoese  and  Vene- 
tians the  galleas  or  "galeaza,"  for  the  building  of  which  he 
obtained  the  exclusive  concession  in  February,  1550.  Bazan  was 
required  to  supply  within  two  months  six  galleons  of  a  combined 
displacement  of  at  least  2000  tons,  three  of  the  newer  sort  and 
three  of  the  older.  He  was  then  to  begin  the  construction  of  six 
galleases,  three  to  take  the  place  of  the  three  old-type  galleons, 
and  complete  them  as  soon  as  possible;  so  that  in  the  end  there 
might  be  three  newly  constructed  armadas  of  two  galleases  and  a 
galleon  each.  These  armadas  were  apparently  to  sail  to  Vera 
Cruz,  Nombre  de  Dios  and  San  Domingo  respectively.  They  were 
given  the  monopoly  of  carrying  the  king's  treasure  from  the 
Indies,  might  lade  whatever  articles  private  merchants  chose  to 
entrust  to  them,  and  were  subject  to  the  ordinary  rules  governing 
the  American  trade.  But  they  were  not  obHged  to  escort  other 
ships,  being  free  to  come  and  go  independently  of  other  sailings. 
The  king  promised  to  contribute  1800  quintals  of  artillery  and  as 
much  of  munitions,  Bazan  furnishing  all  the  rest  of  the  equip- 
*  Fernandez  Duro,  Armada  Espanola,  i,  p.  327. 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  265 

ment.  He  also  contributed  3200  ducats  for  each  voyage,  but 
reserved  the  right  to  requisition  any  or  all  of  Bazan's  vessels  for 
other  services.  Bazan  was  granted  the  title  of  captain  general  in 
the  India  navigation  for  fifteen  years,  and  if  he  died  in  the  mean- 
time leaving  a  son  of  age,  the  latter  might  inherit  the  distinction. ^ 
There  was  much  opposition  to  these  terms  from  the  Consulado, 
and  also  in  the  Council  of  the  Indies,  chiefly  because  of  the  exemp- 
tion from  convoy  duty,  but  the  contract  was  confirmed,  and 
Bazan's  patent  as  captain  general  issued  on  August  i,  1550.^ 

The  galleas  was  an  attempt  to  unite  the  conditions  of  the  galley 
and  the  sailing  ship  to  produce  a  vessel  larger  and  faster  than 
either.  It  carried  three  lateen-rigged  masts,  and  Uke  the  galleon 
high  castellated  structures  at  each  end.  The  oars  were  long  and 
heavy,  from  twenty-five  to  thirty-two  on  a  side,  and  propelled  by 
six  or  seven  men  apiece.  But  this  t5^e  never  superseded  the 
galleon,  for  it  possessed  the  virtues  of  neither  of  its  progenitors. 
Its  sail  area  was  smaller,  and  the  supplementary  oars  proved  use- 
less except  in  the  smoothest  weather.  It  was  also  more  expensive 
to  maintain,  and  in  the  words  of  Fernandez  Duro  served  "  mas 
de  buen  parecer  en  los  puertos  que  de  desempeno  en  la  mar."  ^ 
Four  galleases  were  included  in  the  Great  Armada  of  1588. 

With  the  increase  in  size  of  ocean-going  vessels  came  the  neces- 
sity of  changing  rules  of  construction  and  the  theories  underlying 
them.  Pedro  Menendez  de  Aviles  seems  to  have  been  the  first  to 
conceive  the  idea  of  lengthening  the  keel  in  relation  to  the  beam, 
and  in  the  late  sixties  constructed  on  the  island  of  Cuba  several 
ships  embodying  this  innovation,  which  he  called  "  galeoncetes." 
The  idea  was  encouraged  by  the  brothers  Bazan,  but  met  with 
opposition  from  the  older,  more  conservative  builders.  As  the 
galeoncetes  were  very  good  sailors,  however,  and  experience 
proved  their  seaworthiness,  the  king  later  ordered  eight  to  be 
built  on  the  coasts  of  Biscay.*  This  was  the  first  step  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  frigate,  which  in  the  second  half  of  the  seventeenth 
century  became  an  accepted  type  in  all  the  navies  of  western 

^  Colecc.  de  Espana,  i,  p.  265. 

'  N.M.C.,  xxi,  nos.  21,  29;  Fernandez  Duro,  op.  cit.,  i,  p.  440. 

»  Ibid.,  iii,  p.  184.  *  Ibid. 


266  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

Europe.  The  short,  deep,  tub-like  ship  of  the  sixteenth  century 
gradually  evolved  into  a  longer  vessel  of  lighter  draft,  lower  free- 
board and  finer  lines  at  bow  and  stern.  Especially  after  the  lesson 
of  the  Great  Armada,  the  Spaniards  began  to  imitate  the  con- 
struction of  their  English  rivals.  In  the  time  of  Philip  III,  ships 
were  built  of  500  tons  which  drew  less  water  than  the  older  gal- 
leons of  250  or  300,  and  therefore  able  to  enter  the  Guadalquivir 
at  high  tide.  But  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  improvements 
came  very  slowly,  and  were  confined  rather  to  men-of-war.  In 
respect  to  merchantmen  the  Spaniards'  ideal,  even  into  the  age 
of  the  Bourbons,  was  capacity,  and  their  ships  in  point  of  design 
remained  far  behind  those  of  the  rest  of  Europe.  In  16 18  the 
Crown  published  an  elaborate  set  of  ordinances  for  the  construc- 
tion of  Spanish  vessels,  whether  for  the  king  or  for  private 
individuals,  in  which  every  detail  was  prescribed  with  the  nicest 
exactness. 

The  largest  and  best  ships  of  the  Castilian  kingdom  were  built 
in  the  Biscay  provinces,  and  from  the  beginning  the  Crown,  and 
the  Andalusian  merchants  it  patronized,  resorted  there  for  vessels 
and  stores  to  make  up  the  India  fleets.  The  forests  of  the  south 
were  mostly  of  pine,  while  the  rugged  mountains  of  Galicia  and 
Asturias  furnished  an  abundant  supply  of  oak  and  other  desirable 
hardwoods.  Bazan's  galleases  were  constructed  in  Biscay,  and 
so  long  as  Spain  retained  the  vestige  of  a  marine,  the  prosperity 
of  the  northern  yards  was  an  especial  care  of  the  government. 
After  1593,  indeed,  ships  of  Andalusian  origin  were  forbidden  to 
enter  the  American  navigation,  as  vessels  of  war  or  as  merchant- 
men, for,  the  cedula  declared,  as  they  were  made  of  unseasoned 
pine,  on  the  voyage  bolts  loosened,  planks  were  sprung,  and  the 
vessel  frequently  lost.^  It  was  the  custom,  however,  after  a  ship 
had  been  launched,  to  send  it  to  the  Guadalquivir  to  be  fitted  out 
and  the  upper  works  completed  with  Andalusian  woods. 

The  building  of  ships  in  the  colonies  seems  at  first  to  have  been 
prohibited,  or  at  least  restricted.  Columbus  and  his  companions, 
it  is  true,  put  together  a  caravel  named  the  Santa  Cruz  in  His- 
paniola  in  1496,  the  first  naval  construction  by  white  men  in  the 

*  Recop.,  lib.  ix,  tit.  30,  ley  21. 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  267 

New  World.  And  later,  during  the  Admiral's  absence  in  Spain, 
two  others  were  built  under  the  direction  of  Bartholomew  Colum- 
bus, to  facilitate  communication  between  the  coastal  settle- 
ments.^ But  after  that  there  is  no  mention  of  shipbuilding  in 
the  West  Indies  for  many  years.  In  15 16,  as  related  in  an  earlier 
chapter,  the  Hieronymite  governors  of  the  Indies  were  instructed 
to  allow  settlers  in  Cuba  to  build  and  own  vessels  for  trade  with 
the  other  colonies;  but  the  concession  apparently  was  not  pub- 
lished, for  two  years  later,  in  response  to  a  petition  of  proctors 
from  the  island,  a  cedula  to  the  local  governor,  Diego  Velazquez, 
permitted  the  construction  of  ten  vessels,  none  of  more  than  100 
tons  burden.  And  the  decree  specifically  states  that  such  con- 
struction had  hitherto  been  forbidden. ^  We  have  no  record  that 
the  inhabitants  made  use  of  the  privilege,  and  doubtless  in  the 
early  sixteenth  century,  at  least,  most  of  the  larger  vessels  came 
from  Spain. 

Only  on  the  Pacific  was  shipbuilding  then  an  active  and  impor- 
tant industry,  for  there  from  Balboa's  time  caravels  and  brigan- 
tines  had  to  be  constructed  for  the  task  of  exploration  which 
terminated  in  the  conquest  of  Peru.  In  1533  there  were  over  thirty 
vessels  reported  in  the  South  Sea,  all  built  upon  its  shores.  The 
largest,  the  "  capitana  "  of  the  adelantado  Alvarado,  was  said  to 
be  of  300  tons,  but  most  were  of  only  forty  or  fifty .^  Fray  Antonio 
de  Valdiviedo,  bishop  of  Nicaragua,  in  a  letter  to  the  Council  of 
the  Indies  in  1545  describing  the  advantages  of  the  province  for 
shipbuilding,  added  that ''  cada  dia  se  hacen  buques  ";  *  and  the 
celebrated  expedition  of  Legaspi  to  the  Philippines  in  1564-65 
was  made  in  vessels  entirely  constructed  and  equipped  on  the 
shores  of  New  Spain.  A  letter  from  Panama  in  August,  1590, 
mentioned  some  ten  large  ships  in  the  harbor,  the  heaviest  of  500 
tons;  and  in  1607  the  audiencia  of  that  city  informed  the  king 
that  two  or  three  vessels  were  built  there  every  year,  ranging  from 
60  to  175  tons. 

*  Cappa,  Esttidios  criticos,  x,  pp.  7  f. 

2  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  i,  pp.  69,  85. 

3  N.  Y.  Public  Library,  Rich  Collection,  ii.  Lie.  Espinosa  to  the  Empress,  Oct. 
10,  1533. 

*  Cappa,  op.  cit.,  x,  p.  37. 


268  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

At  the  same  time,  1590,  there  was  great  activity  in  the  yards  at 
Havana,  the  chief  shipbuilding  centre  of  the  West  Indies.  The 
impetus  given  to  the  industry  by  Menendez  de  Aviles  had  never 
quite  been  lost,  and  small  vessels  of  the  type  he  originated  con- 
tinued to  be  constructed  there,  often  to  serve  as  auxiliaries  to 
the  Seville  fleets.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  century,  moreover, 
when  the  flotas  no  longer  sailed  regularly  every  year,  the  king's 
revenues  were  often  carried  to  Spain  in  these  lighter  vessels  of 
American  build.  Especially  was  this  true  after  the  fatal  expedi- 
tion against  England,  when  with  the  destruction  of  Spanish  ship- 
ping and  the  penury  of  the  treasury,  Philip  was  constrained  to 
turn  to  the  colonies  for  vessels  to  make  up  the  loss.  Fleets  sailed 
without  convoy,  and  were  sometimes  armed  in  the  Indies  for  the 
homeward  voyage.  In  1590  six  galeoncetes  or  frigates  were  under 
construction  at  Havana,  and  foundries  established  for  the  manu- 
facture of  artillery.  The  royal  treasure  was  apparently  brought 
to  Havana  in  caravels  from  Vera  Cruz  and  Nombre  de  Dios,  and 
there  placed  on  the  frigates  for  transmission  to  Spain.  In  1591 
orders  were  sent  for  the  building  of  six  more  ships  of  the  same 
type;  and  it  was  in  this  year  also  that  the  Crown  transferred 
to  the  Consulado  the  responsibility  of  maintaining  an  armada 
for  the  American  flotas.^  All  of  these  Cuban  vessels  seem  to 
have  been  of  smaller  tonnage  than  the  usual  Spanish  galleons.  By 
a  cedula  of  June,  1638,  ships  constructed  in  Havana,  Campeche, 
San  Domingo,  Porto  Rico,  and  Jamaica  were  accorded  all  the 
privileges  enjoyed  by  those  constructed  in  the  Peninsula;  and 
ten  years  later  this  order  was  extended  to  vessels  built  anywhere 
in  the  Indies.^ 

One  disadvantage  with  which  the  colonial  shipbuilders  had  to 
contend  was  the  lack  of  cordage,  tackle,  and  hardware,  most  of 
which  had  to  be  brought  out  from  Spain,  even  to  the  carpenters* 
tools.  It  was  an  unfortunate  consequence  of  the  pohcy  of  pro- 
hibiting in  America  the  production  of  such  articles,  and  some- 
times made  the  cost  of  construction  almost  double  that  in  the 
Peninsula. 

*  Fernandez  Duro,  op.  cit.,  ii,  pp.  483  ff.;  Hakluyt  (ed.  of  1904),  x,  pp.  158-161. 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  6,  par.  6. 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  269 

In  the  sixteenth  century  the  Crown  possessed  no  navy  in  the 
present  understanding  of  that  term,  no  ships  of  its  own  expressly 
designed  for  war  and  for  the  other  services  to  which  a  modem 
navy  lends  itself.  Under  the  early  Hapsburgs,  all  vessels  were 
more  or  less  suited  to  all  requirements  of  war  and  trade.  All 
carried  some  armament  as  a  precaution  against  the  insecurities 
of  the  sea,  all  were  fit  for  fighting.  The  distinguishing  feature 
of  men-of-war  lay  in  the  soldiers  and  additional  artillery  with 
which  they  were  supplied.  The  policy  of  encouraging  shipbuild- 
ing by  offering  bounties  for  vessels  over  a  certain  tonnage,  be- 
sides helping  commerce,  largely  obviated  in  those  days  the 
maintenance  of  a  royal  marine;  for  upon  these  vessels  the 
government  had  the  first  claim  in  time  of  need.  The  Spanish 
kings,  when  they  undertook  a  maritime  enterprise,  embargoed 
and  hired  such  merchant  ships  as  they  immediately  required.  Or, 
if  there  was  call  for  a  permanent  service  of  some  sort,  this  too  was 
adjusted  by  means  of  a  contract  with  private  individuals  to  arm 
and  maintain  the  ships  for  a  fixed  sum ;  or  the  king  paid  so  much 
per  ton  for  the  hire  alone  of  the  ships,  which  sailed  under  com- 
mand of  their  owners,  but  were  armed  and  manned  at  the  charge 
of  the  royal  exchequer.  Under  such  a  system,  nobles,  landowners, 
and  even  bishops  used  their  capital  in  the  constructing  and  arming 
of  vessels,  whether  for  service  in  Europe  or  for  the  armada  de  la 
carrera  de  las  Indias. 

This  plan  may  have  been  advantageous  in  the  beginning,  for 
it  at  least  spared  the  finances  of  the  king.  Under  Philip  II  it 
was  already  becoming  an  anachronism.  Yet  in  spite  of  the  com- 
plaints of  merchants,  shipowners,  and  deputies  of  the  Cortes,  the 
custom  of  embargoing  private  ships  continued,  to  the  detriment 
of  fishing  and  trade.  Indeed  Philip,  though  engaged  in  a  titanic 
struggle  with  the  young  and  vigorous  maritime  peoples  of  the 
north,  displayed  an  indifference,  or  even  antipathy,  toward 
everything  connected  with  the  sea,  which  was  one  of  the  un- 
pardonable mistakes  of  his  policy.  Arsenals  and  stores  were 
neglected,  no  attempt  was  made  to  obtain  a  permanent  royal 
marine.  And  with  the  constant  requisitions,  as  shipowners  and 
crews  were  ill-paid,  and  often  made  to  wait  years  for  the  wages 


270  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

due  them,  the  merchant  marine  too  suffered  a  rapid  decline.  The 
lack  of  Spanish  ships  had  then  to  be  made  up  from  abroad,  by 
hiring  from  the  French,  ItaUans  or  even  the  rebel  Dutch.  Some- 
times contracts  were  made  for  entire  squadrons,  with  admiral, 
captains  and  crews  complete,  and  often  on  conditions  which 
had  been  denied  to  native  seamen.  Of  the  armament  of  eighty- 
four  vessels  gathered  at  Ferrol  in  1597  under  command  of 
the  Adelantado  of  Castile,  sixty-four  were  of  foreign  con- 
struction.^ 

In  the  two  succeeding  reigns,  spasmodic  efforts  were  made  to 
remedy  this  state  of  affairs.  Philip  III,  by  entrusting  the  general 
control  of  naval  matters  to  the  Admiral,  Diego  Brochero,  did 
much  to  remove  the  disdain  formerly  attaching  to  service  on  the 
sea.  Brochero  was  given  a  seat  in  the  Council,  and  by  the  ordi- 
nance of  November,  1606,  ^'  para  las  armadas  del  mar  oceano  y 
flotas  de  Indias,"  introduced  reforms  which  attempted  to  restore 
some  order  and  system,  especially  in  the  American  fleets.  Under 
PhiHp  IV,  the  construction  of  ships  by  private  initiative  in  Can- 
tabria  was  stimulated  by  the  renewal  of  earlier  privileges,  such 
as  exemption  from  the  alcabala  for  vessels  of  more  than  200  tons; 
and  measures  were  taken  for  the  installation  of  hospitals,  and  the 
general  improvement  of  conditions  for  the  sea-faring  population. 
The  period  from  the  beginning  of  the  reign  to  1635  was  in  fact  one 
of  considerable  shipbuilding  activity,  but  the  industry  was  again 
ruined  by  the  debacle  at  the  close  of  Olivares'  administration. 
In  the  sixties,  the  government,  at  the  end  of  its  resources  and 
desirous  of  creating  a  new  fleet,  used  the  asiento  of  negroes  as  a 
means  of  reviving  naval  construction.  In  a  contract  concluded 
with  two  Genoese  bankers,  Grillo  and  Lomelin,  the  latter  agreed 
to  build  in  Biscay  ten  ships  of  a  tonnage  prescribed  by  the 
Crown  —  either  vessels  for  the  royal  fleet  at  thirty-one  ducats 
silver  per  ton,  or  galleons  for  the  India  navigation  at  a  rate  to  be 
decided  upon  later.  The  cost  of  these  ships  was  to  be  deducted 
from  the  300,000  pesos  which  the  asentistas  paid  into  the  excheq- 
uer as  duty  on  the  negroes  they  imported  into  the  colonies. 
They  engaged,  moreover,  to  deliver  five  hundred  negroes  a  year 
*  Fernandez  Duro,  op.  cU.,  iii,  p.  180. 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  IJl 

during  the  term  of  the  contract  to  arsenals  and  shipyards  in  the 
Indies,  the  proprietors  of  these  yards  to  pay  the  duty  on  each 
negro  but  devote  it  to  the  construction  of  vessels  for  the  govern- 
ment, at  a  fixed  rate  of  fifty-one  ducats  silver  per  ton.  Grillo  and 
Lomelin  secured  the  privilege  of  carrying  to  the  colonies  the 
necessary  hardware  and  other  ship's  stores,  a  valuable  concession 
seeing  that  the  American  provinces  were  dependent  for  such 
things  upon  the  mother  country.^ 

Owing  to  endless  quarrels  and  misunderstandings  between  the 
king  and  the  asentistas,  the  clauses  regarding  naval  construction 
were  never  carried  out;  and  a  few  years  later  the  Crown  was  in 
such  dire  straits  for  money  that  it  consented  to  a  new  contract  in 
which  this  prime  consideration  was  allowed  to  fall  from  sight 
altogether.  With  the  accession  of  the  imbecile  Charles  II, 
although  interest  in  maritime  affairs  was  by  no  means  dead, 
owing  to  the  absolute  lack  of  resources  shipbuilding  in  Spain 
slowly  disappeared;  and  finally  in  1688,  with  the  complete 
paralyzation  of  work  in  the  yards,  the  oflSices  of  Superintendent, 
Inspector,  and  Comptroller  of  Construction  for  the  king  were 
suppressed.^  Veitia  Linaje  wrote  in  1672,  when  describing  the 
duties  of  the  president  of  the  Casa: 

Uno  de  los  principales  cuydados  del  Presidente,  6  por  mejor  dezir  el  prin- 
cipalissimo,  es  el  de  los  aprestos  de  las  Armadas,  y  Flotas  en  que  cada  dia  se 
necessita  mas  de  major  provedencia,  respecto  de  la  falta  de  Vaxeles,  per- 
trechos,  y  Oficiales,  que  ordinariamente  se  padece,  y  de  esto  ultimo  mas  en 
los  tiempos  presentes  que  en  ninguno  de  los  pasados:  con  lo  qual  suele 
tambien  concurrir  la  penuria  de  dineros,  y  el  necessitarse  de  buscarlos  pres- 
tados,  y  fiados  los  bastimentos;  con  que  es  una  continua  tarea  de  fatigas  la 
desta  puesto.3 

From  the  beginning  the  Crown  prescribed  in  minute  detail  the 
equipment,  arming,  provisioning,  lading,  and  manning  of  all  ves- 
sels sailing  to  the  New  World.  This  far-reaching  official  control 
was  common  to  Barcelona,  Venice  and  other  cities  of  the  medie- 
val Mediterranean,  and  may  have  represented  a  Catalan  influ- 
ence in  American  maritime  legislation.  The  first  set  of  ordinances 
relating  specifically  to  such  matters  was  probably  that  of  July  14, 

*  Scelle,  La  traite  negriere,  i,  pp.  521  f.  '  Ibid.,  v,  p.  88. 

•  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  3,  par.  22. 


272  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

1522.  Every  ship  of  100  tons  was  obliged  to  carry  at  least  fifteen 
mariners  including  a  gunner,  eight  "  grumetes,"  or  apprentices, 
and  three  "pajes,"  or  ship's  boys,  all  the  men  being  provided  with 
a  corselet  or  breastplate  and  other  armor.  The  vessel  must  also 
have  a  battery  of  four  large  iron  guns  and  twenty-four  swivel  guns 
("  pasavolantes  "  and  "  espingardas  ")•  For  each  large  gun  there 
were  to  be  supplied  three  dozen  shot,  and  for  each  of  the  pasa- 
volantes six  dozen,  with  molds  and  lead  to  make  bullets  for  the 
espingardas.  There  were  likewise  required  two  hundredweight  of 
powder,  ten  crossbows  with  eight  dozen  arrows,  four  dozen  short 
lances,  eight  long  pikes  and  twenty  shields.  Other  vessels  were  to 
carry  a  similar  armament  proportionate  to  their  size  and  capacity, 
but  apparently  ships  much  larger  than  100  tons  were  not  then 
contemplated.^  None  of  this  equipment  might  be  sold  or  left  in 
the  Indies,  the  value  of  whatever  was  unaccounted  for  when  the 
vessel  returned  being  deducted  from  the  wages  or  other  profits  of 
the  master.  An  examination  of  the  actual  outfit  of  various  India 
ships  between  1520  and  1530  shows  that  each  mariner  carried  a 
sword,  which  with  his  armor  was  sometimes  at  his  own  expense, 
and  that  vessels  besides  an  assortment  of  crossbows  were  occasion- 
ally provided  with  a  few  muskets.  Generally  there  were  about 
two  dozen  rounds  for  each  type  of  weapon. 

A  much  more  elaborate  code  of  rules  was  promulgated  in 
September,  1534,  for  the  remedying  of  certain  abuses  growing  out 
of  the  negligence  or  avarice  of  shipmasters.^  As  old  and  worn-out 
vessels,  unfit  for  a  long  voyage,  were  frequently  brought  to  Seville 
to  be  employed  in  the  colonial  trade,  thereafter  no  ship,  unless  it 
was  new,  might  lade  for  America  without  first  being  careened,^ 
calked,  and  repaired  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  officers  of  the  Casa. 
Pilots  and  masters  had  to  be  native  Spaniards,  and  examined  for 

^  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  ix,  p.  143. 

2  Ihid.,  ist  ser.,  xxxii,  p.  492. 

'  It  seems  that  vessels  when  careened  were  not  always  drawn  up  on  shore,  but 
often  by  a  manipulation  of  ballast  turned  over  in  the  water  far  enough  to  uncover 
the  keel  itself.  It  was  a  delicate  operation,  in  which  the  careneros  of  Seville  were 
reputed  very  skilful.  As  Spanish  methods  of  calking  were  extremely  thorough, 
and  labor  and  materials  high,  the  process  was  apt  to  be  a  tedious  and  expensive  one. 
In  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  carpenters  and  calkers  were  paid  from 
8  to  10  reals  a  day  besides  their  board. 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  273 

the  particular  voyage  they  intended  to  make  before  the  pilot 
major  of  the  India  House;  and  it  was  significantly  stated  that  no 
one  might  lend  to  vessels  cables,  arms,  casks,  tackle,  etc.,  to  be 
displayed  to  the  Casa's  inspector  and  left  behind  after  he  had 
gone.  Sailors,  too,  who  appeared  at  the  inspection  but  did  not 
sail  were  threatened  with  dire  penalties.  On  the  voyage,  the  upper 
deck  and  principal  cabins  had  to  be  kept  free  of  merchandise  so  as 
to  avoid  overloading,  only  provisions,  artillery  and  passengers' 
chests  being  permitted  above  board;  while  minute  regulations 
were  laid  down  for  the  stowage  of  cargo  in  the  superstructures 
fore  and  aft.  Thirty  passengers  was  the  maximum  for  a  ship  of 
100  tons,  and  captains  were  forbidden  to  demand  more  money  of 
them  than  had  been  agreed  upon  before  embarkation.  The  daily 
rations  for  each  person  were  one  and  one-half  pounds  of  bread, 
two  pints  of  drinking  water  (and  another  for  bathing),  and  two 
pints  of  wine,  which,  the  ordinance  adds, "  es  la  racion  ordinaria." 
The  code  contains  nineteen  clauses  in  all,  most  of  which  reap- 
peared in  the  ordinances  of  the  Casa  of  1552. 

It  seems  that  the  master  mariners  of  Seville  protested  to  the 
Council  of  the  Indies  against  some  of  the  rules  as  unreasonable; 
wherefore  in  the  following  August  a  royal  decree  was  dispatched 
to  the  Casa  modifying  and  explaining  certain  of  them.  Among 
others,  the  clause  requiring  the  careening  of  old  ships  before 
receiving  permission  to  lade  for  the  colonies  was  temporarily 
suspended,  for  lack  of  "  instrumento  y  aparejos  para  ello."  The 
accommodations  at  Seville  were  still  inadequate  for  a  trade  of 
which  it  enjoyed  the  exclusive  monopoly. 

In  February,  1552,  when,  as  related  before,  it  was  for  the 
moment  decided  to  abolish  convoys  and  arm  all  ships  against 
possible  foes,  a  new  set  of  ordinances  appeared,  by  which  India 
vessels  were  grouped  in  three  general  classes  according  to  size, 
100-170  tons,  170-220  tons,  and  220-320  tons.  One  hundred  tons 
was  fixed  as  the  minimum  for  a  trans-Atlantic  voyage.  The  pro- 
visions of  these  ordinances  may,  for  greater  ease  of  comprehen- 
sion, be  presented  in  tabular  form : 


274 


TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 


Royal  Ordinances  of  February  13,  1552,  regarding  the  Artillery,  Men, 

Arms  and  Munitions  to  be  Carried  on  Ships  Sailing 

to  and  from  the  indies  ^ 


Tonnage  of  vesseb 

Mariners 

Gunners 

Apprentices .... 

Cabin-boys 

Demiculverins  .  . 

Sacres 

Falconets 

Lombards 

Versos 

Arquebuses 

Crossbows 

Pikes 

Half-pikes 

Lances 

Shields , 

Breastplates  .  .  .  , 

Helmets 

Powder 

Balls 


100-170  tons 


170-220  tons 


220-320  tons 


Crew 


Artil'y 
Brass 

Artil'y 
Iron 


Small 

arms 

and 

armor 


I 

6 
12 
12 
12 

24 

144 

180 

12 

12 

20 

9  cwt.  I  quart. 

50  each  for  the 


I 

8 

18 

20 

20 

36 

180 

240 

18 

18 


25 
14  cwt.  2  quart, 
falconets;  20-30  for  other  guns. 


35 
6 

15 

5 

I 

2 

I 

10 

24 

30 

30 

48 

240 

360 

24 

24 

30 

18  cwt,  3  quart. 


Each  vessel  was  to  carry  a  netting  which  in  time  of  action  might 
be  drawn  over  the  decks  from  bow  to  stern  to  intercept  dropping 
missiles;  and  also  waistcloths  to  be  rigged  up  so  as  to  prevent 
boarding,  and  provided  with  openings  for  the  discharge  of  bows, 
arquebuses  and  the  smaller  artillery.  There  must  be  a  complete 
equipment  of  ramrods,  carriages  for  guns,  molds  for  making  lead 
bullets,  etc.,  and  a  special  chamber  in  the  bow  below  decks  for  the 
storage  of  powder. 

The  demiculverins,  sacres  and  falcons  ^  were  brass  guns  of 
comparatively  small  caUbre,  and  very  long,  from  25  to  40  times 
the  diameter  of  the  muzzle.  The  demiculverins,  as  a  rule  indi- 
vidually named,  weighed  between  3000  and  4000  pounds.  They 
fired  a  ball  weighing  from  7  to  12  pounds,  and  had  a  point  blank 
range  of  about  1000  paces.  They  were  the  largest  pieces  commonly 
found  on  ships  in  the  India  navigation  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
Sacres  weighed  from  1700  to  2400  pounds,  and  used  a  5  or  6  pound 

^  N.  M.  C,  xxi,  no.  30. 

*  Though  called  falconetes  in  the  ordinances,  it  is  evident  from  their  weight  that 
the  larger  falcons  were  meant. 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  275 

ball  with  a  range  of  900  paces;  the  falcons,  from  700  to  900 
pounds,  fired  a  2  to  4  pound  ball  about  700  paces.  To  discharge 
these  cannon  was  used  an  amount  of  powder  about  equal  to  the 
weight  of  the  shot,  or  if  it  was  very  fine  powder,  about  one  half 
that  amount.  The  other  artillery  mentioned  were  smaller,  iron 
guns,  the  lombards  being  comparatively  short,  large-bore  pieces 
of  rather  primitive  construction,  the  versos  and  pasavolantes  very 
long  and  light,  mounted  on  swivels  and  firing  a  4  to  8  ounce 
ball.i 

Iron  artillery,  unless  new,  was  often  of  little  effective  use,  the 
persons  most  injured  being  those  serving  the  guns.  And  in  the 
second  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  armament  of  Spanish 
vessels  was  almost  entirely  of  brass.  Crossbows,  too,  a  relic  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  were  soon  entirely  superseded  by  the  more 
effective  arquebus.  In  a  cedula  of  June  24, 1573,  the  factor  of  the 
Casa  was  instructed  to  keep  in  the  Atarazanas  or  arsenal  at  least 
200  pieces  of  artillery;  and  by  another  of  August  11,  he  was 
further  ordered  to  have  on  hand  1500  arquebuses,  50  corselets, 
1500  helmets,  200  hundredweight  of  powder,  500  pikes,  1000 
half-pikes,  200  halbards  and  partizans,  and  300  dozen  lances.^ 

With  the  increase  in  the  capacity  of  ships  came  also  an  increase 
in  the  number  and  calibre  of  their  guns.  Yet  even  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  artillery  on  the  American  fleets  was  comparatively 
small,  firing  balls  not  exceeding  thirty  pounds  in  weight,  although 
the  capitanas  and  almirantas  sometimes  mounted  as  many  as 
fifty  cannon  ranged  in  several  tiers.  The  tradition,  indeed,  kept 

1  Arintegui  y  Sanz,  Apunies  historicas,  pp.  313  fif.;  Fernandez  Duro,  Disqui- 
siciones  nduHcas,  vi,  pp.  449,  483,  500. 

We  also  hear  of  falconetes,  weighing  600  lbs.,  and  firing  balls  of  from  i|  to 
2  lbs.;  and  medio-sacres,  of  1,000  to  1,400  lbs.,  firing  balls  of  25  or  3  lbs.  Full- 
sized  culverins  fired  a  shot  weighing  from  14  to  25  lbs.,  but  were  in  the  six- 
teenth century  considered  rather  too  long  and  heavy  for  ships.  There  was  also 
another  series  of  guns  called  caiiones,  which  differed  from  those  mentioned  above 
in  being  shorter  and  heavier.  The  largest  weighed  5,500-6,000  lbs.  and  used  about 
a  40  lb.  shot.  The  smaller  cannon  were  called  medios  or  peUcans,  tercios  and 
cuartos,  according  to  their  calibre.  Still  heavier  guns,  found  only  occasionally 
mounted  in  fortresses,  and  some  firing  missiles  of  100  lbs.  or  more,  were  called 
basilisks  {basiliscos).  Artillery  pieces  longer  or  shorter  than  the  length  customary 
for  their  particular  type  were  usually  called  bastards. 

'  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  13,  par.  7. 


276  TEADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

alive  by  the  Mediterranean  wars  with  Turks  and  Barbary  pirates, 
persisted  too  long  on  the  Atlantic  that  artillery  was  but  a  supple- 
mentary arm,  a  preliminary  to  boarding  and  hand- to  hand  com- 
bat. It  was  an  error  for  which  the  Spaniards  paid  dear  in  their 
conflicts  with  the  Dutch  and  English,  especially  in  1588  and  after. 
The  armament  of  the  galleons  was  distributed  on  the  two  sides  of 
the  upper  deck,  and  in  the  larger  vessels  on  the  second  deck  as 
well.  On  the  superstructures  fore  and  aft  were  other  pieces,  some 
discharged  through  portholes  as  bow  or  stern  chasers,  others  fired 
on  the  broadside,  but  also  if  necessary  used  to  command  the  rest 
of  the  vessel  amidships. 

Although  the  government,  after  the  promulgation  of  the  rules  of 
1552,  returned  to  the  system  of  convoyed  fleets,  these  rules  con- 
tinued in  force  for  merchant  vessels  sailing  to  the  New  World, 
were  incorporated  with  the  general  ordinances  of  the  Casa  de 
Contratacion,  and  republished  with  them  from  time  to  time. 
Already  in  1557,  however,  it  was  found  necessary  to  take  further 
precautions  against  the  dangerous  practices  of  Spanish  ship 
owners.  A  cedula  of  May  5  relates  that  instead  of  the  best  vessels 
being  sent  to  America,  as  so  long  and  difficult  a  voyage  re- 
quired, the  contrary  was  usually  the  case;  that  ordinarily  Span- 
ish ships  were  first  dispatched  to  the  Levant  and  elsewhere,  and 
only  when  they  were  superannuated  and  their  timbers  sprung 
were  they  brought  to  Seville  to  be  sold  for  the  India  trade;  and 
as  many  ships  sailing  to  the  Caribbean  were  discarded  there,  the 
matter  of  age  was  regarded  by  the  purchasers  as  of  little  moment. 
Other  shipowners,  the  cedula  continues,  rebuilt  their  vessels, 
adding  a  larger  superstructure  to  a  short  keel  so  as  to  increase  the 
storage  capacity,  sometimes  by  as  much  as  a  third.  Such  ships, 
being  extremely  topheavy,were  bad  weather  boats,  and  carried  ar- 
tillery with  difficulty,  while  at  the  same  time,  not  having  a  spread 
of  canvas  commensurate  with  the  increased  burden,  they  were 
very  slow  sailers.  To  remedy  this  state  of  affairs,  the  decree 
instructed  the  visitadores  or  inspectors,  together  with  the  captain 
general  of  the  fleet,  to  examine  the  staunchness  and  the  scantlings 
of  each  vessel,  permit  no  "  edificios  "  to  be  added  above  what  was 
necessary,  and  give  their  approval  to  no  old  ships,  or  indeed  to  any 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  277 

which  had  seen  more  than  two  years'  service.  They  were,  more- 
over, to  allow  no  mariners  to  sail  in  the  ships  unless  they  had  been 
examined  in  the  duties  of  their  respective  offices,  or  had  served 
three  years  as  grumete  or  apprentice,  and  no  passengers  to  embark 
as  members  of  the  crew.^ 

From  this  time  forward,  ships  might  not  be  sent  to  the  Indies 
to  be  abandoned  there  without  special  permission  from  the 
Crown;  and  in  1584  orders  were  issued  that  a  vessel  might 
remain  in  America  only  if  the  general  of  the  fleet  gave  his  assent, 
based  on  the  testimony  of  six  pilots  or  masters  that  the  case  was 
unforeseen  and  unpremeditated.  In  any  event,  masters  and 
sailors  had  to  return  immediately  to  Seville.  But  to  favor  those 
whose  ships  were  worn  out  in  the  colonial  service,  the  practice 
arose  of  admitting  at  least  one  such  vessel  to  each  of  the  fleets, 
provided  it  was  of  Spanish  construction.  It  was  also  sometimes 
found  convenient  to  use  the  crew,  artillery,  and  other  equip- 
ment of  discarded  ships  to  reenforce  the  rest  of  the  fleet  on  the 
homeward  voyage. 

When  the  Recopilacion  was  published  in  168 1,  of  course  vessels 
had  vastly  increased  in  size  and  innovations  and  improvements 
appeared  in  armament  and  construction.  Law  30  of  section  30, 
book  9,  of  this  collection,  therefore,  while  again  repeating  the  old 
rules  of  the  time  of  Charles  V  and  Philip  II,  declared  that  in  the 
future  they  should  serve  merely  by  way  of  a  guide  to  what  was 
reasonable  and  convenient  in  the  light  of  later  changes. 

In  the  expedition  of  Pedrarias  Davila  to  Tierra  Firme  in  1514, 
for  the  first  time  the  hulls  of  vessels  were  protected  by  a  sheathing 
of  lead  from  the  devastations  of  the  teredo  or  ship  worm,  which 
had  worked  such  havoc  on  Columbus'  fourth  voyage.  An  order 
to  Pedrarias  from  Valladolid,  August  7,  15 13,  directed  him  to 
purchase  "  dos  carabelas,  que  sean  nuevas,  las  cuales  fareis  enfor- 
rar  de  la  manga  abajo,  de  plomo."^  On  the  caravel,  Santa 
Catalina,  of  his  fleet,  35  hundredweight  of  lead  were  used;  on 
another  caravel  in  the  same  year,  40  hundredweight;  and  on  a 
smaller,  27^.  Navarre te  says  that  there  is  no  earlier  Spanish 
record  of  this  practice. 

1  Encinas,  iv,  p.  152.  2  ^  ^g  j^  jo^  ^  ^^ 


278  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

The  inventor  of  the  device  may  have  been  a  certain  Antonio 
Hernandez,  for  in  a  decree  of  July,  15 14,  he  was  appointed  "  em- 
plomador  de  naos,"  with  a  salary  of  25,000  maravedis.  De  Solis 
wished  to  take  him  along  on  the  voyage  to  La  Plata  in  1515,  but 
was  not  permitted,  for  the  daily  need  there  was  of  him  at  the  Casa 
de  Contratacion.i  Apparently  sheets  of  lead  were  later  often 
replaced  by  thin  plates  of  copper,  but  the  practice  of  sheathing 
cannot  have  been  universal.  In  1554  the  Consulado  was  urging 
the  king  to  order  the  Mexican  viceroy  to  see  that  ships  at  Vera 
Cruz  were  not  delayed  there  by  lawsuits  and  appeals,  since  every 
year  "  se  comen  alii  de  broma  (teredo)  ocho  6  diez  naos,"  and 
those  which  returned  were  often  in  so  bad  a  state  as  to  founder  on 
the  voyage.2 

On  Spanish  vessels  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries 
the  customary  rations  to  sailors  and  soldiers  included  biscuit, 
wine,  salt  pork  and  fish,  beans  and  peas,  oil,  vinegar,  rice,  and 
sometimes  cheese  or  beef.  There  survives  in  the  Archivo  de 
Indias  an  interesting  document  ^  giving  an  estimate  of  the  pro- 
visions and  munitions  needed  for  the  armada  which  accompanied 
the  fleet  of  Pedro  de  las  Roelas  to  America  in  1563.  There  were 
only  two  ships  to  the  armada,  a  capitana  and  an  almiranta,  both 
of  them  merchantmen  part  of  whose  tonnage  was  reserved  for  the 
accommodation  of  soldiers  and  extra  artillery.  The  estimate 
included  provisions  for  only  the  general,  admiral  and  seventy 
soldiers,  gunners  and  officers  added  to  the  vessels^  regular  crews. 
It  was  reckoned  that  half  the  number,  accompanying  the  general 
to  Tierra  Firme,  would  require  rations  for  eight  months,  the  other 
half,  going  with  the  admiral  to  Vera  Cruz,  for  sixteen  months.* 
The  paper  is  especially  valuable  in  that  it  gives  the  whole  amount 
of  each  article  required,  the  cost  per  unit,  and  the  daily  rations. 
In  tabular  form  it  appears  on  pages  279  and  280.  ^ 

*  Viajes,  i,  p.  cxxvii;  Puente  y  Olea,  Los  trabajos  geogrdficos  de  la  Casa  de  la 
Contratacidn,  p.  137. 

*  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  iii,  pp.  513-520.  '  A.  de  I.,  30.  3.  i. 

*  The  early  ordinances  of  the  Casa,  in  15 10,  required  every  vessel  returning 
from  the  New  World  to  carry  provisions  for  eighty  days,  to  preclude  any  excuse  for 
calling  at  another  port  before  coming  to  Seville. 

»  It  is  interesting  to  compare  prices  as  estimated  in  this  report  of  1563  with 
prices  44  years  earlier,  when  Magellan  was  preparing  his  celebrated  expedition,  and 


SBIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS 


279 


Statement  of  the  Provisions,  Munitions,  etc.,  necessary  por  the  Armada 
OF  Pedro  de  las  Roelas,  1563-64 


Provisions 

Amount 

Cost  per  unit 

Whole  cost 

Daily  rations 

Ordinary  biscuit 

373  cwt.  25  lbs. 

2  ducats  per  cwt. 

279.937  maravedis 

I  i  lbs.  daily  per  person 

White     biscuit 

for  the  general 

and  admiral. . 

lOCWt. 

36  reals  per  cwt. 

12,240         • 

Wine 

1642  arrobas* 

2Somaravedis 
per  arroba 

410,500         • 

i  azimibre*  daily  per 
person 

Beef 

7488  libretas  * 

IS  maravedis  per 
Ubreta 

112,32c         « 

I  libreta  per  person  2 
days  in  the  week,  Sun- 

(for 3  months) 

days  and  Thursdays 

Salt  fish 

99  cwt.  84  lbs. 

20  reak  per  cwt. 

67,888 

I  libra  camicera*  to 
every  3  persons  4  days 
in  the  week 

Salt  pork 

18  cwt.  72  lbs. 

2500    maravedis 
per  cwt. 

46.800 

J  libreta  per  person  i 
day  in  the  week 

Beans  and  peas 

31  fanegas,*  3 

16  reals  per  fa- 

17,000         ■ 

J  ahnud  to  15  persons. 

almudes 

nega 

3  days  in  the  week, 
half  beans,  half  peas 

Rice 

3  cwt.  74  lbs. 

40  reals  per  cwt. 

5,094         * 

I  lb.  to  10  persons,  i 
day  in  the  week 

Cheese 

14  cwt.  4  lbs. 

2500    maravedis 
per  cwt. 

3S.10O          • 

2  oz.  per  person  on  beef 
and  pork  days 

Oil 

54  arrobas 

I  ducat  per  ar- 
roba 

20,250          * 

i  azumbre  monthly  per 
person 

Vinegar 

1 72  J  arrobas 

4  reals  per  arroba 

23,460 

I  arroba  monthly  to  s 
persons 

Garlic 

300  strings 

I  real  per  string 

10,200          " 

»  Arroba  =  3i-4  gals.                » 

Libreta  =  troy  lb. 

6  Fanega  = 

t.6  bushels  =  12  almudes. 

•  Azumbre  =  3^-4  pints.          *  ] 

Libra  camicera  =  , 

56  oz. 

with  others  in  1586,  submitted  by  the  Marquis  of  Santa  Cruz  in  his  estimates  of 
the  probable  cost  of  the  Great  Armada: 

1519  1563  15S6 

Biscuit  (per  cwt.) 170  maravedis    750  maravedis    612  maravedis 

Salt  Pork  (per  cwt.) 770  " 

Beans  and  Peas  (per  fanega) ...      162  " 

Rice  (per  cwt.) 485  " 

Cheese  (per  cwt.) 940  " 

Oil  (per  arroba) 302  " 

Vinegar  (per  arroba) 13  " 

Gunpowder  (per  cwt.) 2084  " 

Lead  (per  cwt.) 722  " 

These  data  are  of  course  too  meagre  to  permit  of  any  generalizations  as  to  the  rise 
of  prices  in  the  sixteenth  century.  According  to  this  table,  most  articles  appear  to 
have  become  from  two  to  three  times  dearer.  Only  olive  oil  remained  nearly 
stationary. 

The  jBgures  for  1519  were  taken  from  Viajes,  iv,  pp.  162  fiF.;  those  for  1586  are 
found  in  Fernandez  Duro,  La  armada  invencible,  i,  pp.  274  ff. 


2500 

2380 

444 

« 

340 

u 

1360 

u 

1500 

u 

2500 

u 

2380 

u 

375 

u 

306 

u 

136 

u 

148 

u 

4125 

a 

5100 

u 

II2S 

u 

1020 

a 

28o 


TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 


Statement  of  the  Provisions,  Munitions,  etc.,  necessary  for  tbob  Armada 
OF  Pedro  de  las  Roelas,  1563-64 


Miinitions,  etc. 


Amount 


Cost  per  unit 


Whole  cost 


Arquebuses 

Coarse  powder  for  8  pieces  of  artillery 

Fine  powder  for  arquebuses 

Cannon  balls 

Lead  for  shot  for  the  arquebuses .... 
Match  for  arquebuses  and  artillery .  . , 
Tallow  candles 

Wax  torches  for  ship's  lantern 

Medicines 

Flags  and  drums  for  the  general  and 

admiral 

Royal  standard 

Water  casks 

Barrels  and  other  articles 

Cordage  and  timber 


50 
20  cwt. 

3  cwt. 

2  cwt. 

4  cwt. 
4  cwt. 

2  cwt. 


30 


i^  ducats  each 
II  ducats  per  cwt. 
17  ducats  per  cwt. 

3  ducats  per  cwt. 
9  ducats  per  cwt. 
2,200  maravedis 

per  cwt. 
9,000  maravedis 
per  cwt. 


33  reals  each 


Maravedis 
28,125 
82,500 
19,125 
12,000 
2,250 
13,500 

8,800 

18,000 
30,000 

22,500 
22,500 
33,660 
75,000 
30,000 


Just  a  century  later,  in  1665,  a  royal  decree  prescribing  the  daily 
rations  on  the  armada  de  barlovento,  then  preparing  for  American 
waters,  provides  a  schedule  remarkably  like  that  of  1563.  The 
daily  portion  of  wine  per  person  was  reduced  to  about  half,  and 
there  was  no  salt  beef,  but  in  its  place  there  were  more  frequent 
rations  of  bacon  and  rice: 

Biscuit 24  ounces  every  day 

Wine I  cuartillo  every  day 

Fish 8  ounces  4  days  in  the  week 

Salt  Pork 8  ounces  3  days  in  the  week 

Peas  and  Beans 2  ounces  4  days  in  the  week 

Rice i\  ounces  3  days  in  the  week 

Oil i\  ounces  every  day 

Vinegar i  cuartillo  every  day 

Cheese small  amount  each  week^ 

The  rations  on  a  ship  in  the  India  fleets  twenty  years  later,  at 
least  as  Alvarez  Osorio  would  have  arranged  them  according  to 
his  Discourses  published  in  1686,  are  more  meagre.  There  were  to 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  5,  par.  22. 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  28 1 

be  only  twelve  ounces  of  biscuit  provided  daily,  and  six  ounces  of 
codfish  or  salt  pork.  The  other  portions  were  about  the  same  as 
earlier.  The  Consulado  in  the  sixteenth  century  was  sometimes 
given  a  voice  in  these  dispositions  respecting  provisions,  etc.  In 
the  seventeenth  century,  such  matters  were  administered  solely 
by  the  Casa  de  Contratacion. 

Presuming  that  a  ship  was  of  Spanish  ownership  and  origin,  a 
license  from  the  Casa  was  also  requisite  for  every  voyage  made  to 
the  New  World;  which  license,  according  to  the  ordinances  of 
September,  1534,  might  be  granted  only  after  an  inspection  of 
the  vessel  as  to  its  age,  tonnage,  and  fitness  for  a  long  sea  journey. 
The  license  prescribed  the  maximum  amount  of  freight  and 
number  of  passengers  which  might  be  carried,  this  information 
being  likewise  included  in  the  ship's  register,  so  that  customs 
ofl&cers  in  America  could  take  cognizance  of  any  excess.  The 
penalty  in  1552  was  fixed  at  10,000  maravedis  fine  for  every  ton 
of  freight  and  each  passenger  above  the  maximiun,  besides  for- 
feiture of  the  excess  cargo. ^  In  the  beginning  a  license  could 
be  denied  to  no  one  who  fulfilled  the  requirements  laid  down  by 
the  Crown.  Any  vessel  properly  equipped  and  laded  might  depart 
alone  or  with  the  fleets  as  the  rule  might  be.  But  at  least  as  early 
as  1582  the  niunber  of  ships  sailing  in  each  fleet  was  settled  by  the 
Casa  in  consultation  with  the  prior  and  consuls  of  the  merchants 
(after  1642  also  with  the  gild  of  mariners);  and  this  would  seem 
to  imply  that  thereafter  the  licenses  issued  each  year  were  more  or 
less  limited  in  number.  It  also  meant  that  the  choice  of  vessels 
rested  with  the  officers  of  the  Casa,  an  invidious  privilege  bound 
to  cause  heartburnings  and  bitter  complaints  among  masters  and 
owners  less  favored  than  the  rest.  So  much  time  was  consumed 
apparently  in  the  discussion  and  justification  of  such  cases  that  in 
1 601  the  election  of  ships  was  transferred  to  the  Council  of  the 
Indies,  the  Casa  sending  to  Madrid  a  descriptive  list  of  eligible 
vessels  found  in  the  Guadalquivir.  It  had  always  been  customary 
to  remit  to  the  council  a  report  of  the  ships  which  the  president 
and  jueces  had  chosen.  But  the  council,  too,  soon  found  the  selec- 
*  Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1505,  no.  22;  1510,  no.  31;  1552,  no.  155. 


282  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

tion  of  merchantmen  too  embarrassing  a  task,  and  in  September, 
1 6 13,  shifted  the  responsibility  back  to  the  Casa.  Licenses  to 
"  navios  de  registro,"  however,  i.  e.,  to  vessels  permitted  to  sail 
to  West  Indian  islands  and  ports  outside  the  beaten  track  of  the 
fleets,  had  until  1642  always  to  come  from  the  king  or  the  Council 
of  the  Indies.^ 

The  limitation  in  the  tonnage  of  the  fleets  and  the  resulting 
competition  made  inevitable  sooner  or  later  the  formulation  of  a 
body  of  rules  governing  the  admission  or  exclusion  of  merchant 
ships;  rules  which  offer  an  excellent  example  of  the  meticulous 
character  of  Spanish  mercantile  and  maritime  regulations.  To 
encourage  shipbuilding  in  the  peninsula,  one  third  of  the  tonnage 
of  the  flotas  was  reserved  to  those  who  had  constructed  the  ships 
they  owned.  If  there  was  competition  among  these  "  fabrica- 
dores,"  or  among  those  eligible  for  the  other  two  thirds,  the  pref- 
erence was  given  to  vessels  which  fulfilled  most  closely  the 
specifications  issued  from  time  to  time  by  the  government.^  If 
ships  were  equally  eligible  in  these  respects,  those  were  preferred 
which  possessed  seniority  of  arrival  at  the  port  of  San  Lucar; 
and  among  the  latter,  vessels  constructed  in  Biscay  had  pre- 
eminence over  those  built  in  other  parts  of  the  kingdom  or  in 
the  Indies.  That  a  ship  was  equipped  with  artillery  of  brass 
also  gave  it  a  prior  claim  over  others  of  greater  seniority,  or 
the  fact  that  its  owner  had  served  the  king  for  six  years  in  the 
royal  armadas.^ 

The  Crown  frequently  conceded  to  particular  individuals  or 
corporations  special  permission  (licencias  de  privilegio)  to  send 
a  ship  with  the  American  flotas;  and  these  licenses  became  so 
numerous  that  in  1625  an  order  appeared  allowing  only  one  such 

1  Antunez  y  Acevedo,  pp.  53-55;  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  6,  par.  3;  Recop.y 
lib.  ix,  tit.  42,  ley  I. 

After  1582  the  jueces  oficiales  were  assisted  in  their  examination  of  eligible 
vessels  by  the  general  or  the  almirante  appointed  for  the  fleet,  the  capitan  de  la 
maestranza,  and  sometimes  by  the  visitadores. 

2  Rules  for  the  measurement  or  gauging  of  ships  were  published  by  the  govern- 
ment in  1 6 13,  and  in  1620  an  ofl&cial  ship-gauger  or  "arqueador  "  was  appointed 
for  the  Casa  with  a  salary  of  20  escudos  a  month.    See  Recop.,  lib.  ix,  tit.  28,  leyes 

23-25. 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  6,  passim. 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  283 

vessel  to  accompany  each  of  the  fleets,  the  licenses  being  honored 
in  the  order  of  their  date  of  issue.  After  1647,  when  the  Con- 
sulado  was  granted  a  perpetual  license  of  this  nature  in  return  for 
constructing  twelve  galleons  for  the  royal  service,  there  were 
generally  two  privileged  vessels  in  each  of  the  fleets.  But  the 
tonnage  of  these  ships  was  always  deducted  from  the  whole 
tonnage  assigned  for  that  particular  year. 

Most  of  these  rules  became  more  or  less  obsolete  as  the  number 
of  native  ships  decreased,  and  greater  and  greater  dependence  was 
put  on  those  of  foreign  construction;  for  it  was  to  encourage  and 
favor  Spanish  ships  and  shipbuilding  that  they  were  in  the  first 
place  directed.  Owners  of  foreign-built  vessels  which  were  ad- 
mitted to  the  India  navigation  enjoyed  the  same  privileges  and 
immunities  conceded  to  the  mariners'  gild  of  Seville. 

It  is  likely  that  in  the  beginnings  of  Spanish  colonial  commerce 
freight  contracts  were  not  subjected  to  royal  regulation,  but  were 
fixed  by  custom  or  governed  by  the  ordinary  forces  of  supply  and 
demand  among  masters  and  shippers.^  The  first  attempt  at  inter- 
ference is  said  to  have  been  made  in  April,  1572.  In  response  to 
complaints  from  the  Consulado  of  the  excessive  rates  demanded 
by  Biscayan  shipowners  in  the  fleet  then  preparing  for  New 
Spain,  the  Council  of  the  Indies  ordered  the  Casa's  officers  to  have 
American  freight  charges  immediately  reduced  to  schedule  on  the 
basis  of  the  rates  in  previous  fleets. ^  If  the  decree  was  intended  to 

*  At  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  from  100  to  no  maravedis  per  ton 
per  month  were  paid  for  the  hire  of  ships.  At  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Charles  V 
the  rates  customarily  paid  by  the  Crown  for  vessels  employed  in  the  armadas  were 
as  follows: 

While  being  fitted  out  in  the  river 

at  Seville no  maravedis  per  ton  per  month. 

On  a  voyage  to  the  Azores 130  "  «      «      «        « 

On  a  voyage  to  the  Indies 140  "  «     «      «        a 

As  prices  of  ship's  stores,  however,  had  risen  10  per  cent  in  the  previous  decade,  the 
oficiales  of  the  Casa  suggested  to  the  king  that  these  rates  be  made  more  generous. 

A.  de  I.,  Patr.  2.  5.  1/14,  ramos  18,  23;  Viajes,  ii,  pp.  81-86;  Fernandez  Duro, 
Armada  Espanola,  i,  p.  352. 

2  Antunez  y  Acevedo,  pp.  169  f.  Apparently  the  schedule  was  made  the  same 
for  Seville,  San  Lucar,  and  Cadiz. 


284  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

inaugurate  a  new  policy,  it  was  in  force  only  a  short  time;  for  in 
the  ordinances  regulating  the  dispatch  of  flotas  issued  in  January, 
1582,  the  king  specifically  states  that  in  view  of  the  increased  cost 
of  ship's  stores  it  is  his  wish  that  the  schedules  for  freight  rates 
for  the  time  being  be  discontinued.  That  they  were  not  renewed 
for  a  considerable  period  may  be  inferred  from  a  report  of  the 
India  House  to  the  Council  in  161 5.  The  Mexican  colonists  in  that 
year  petitioned  the  Council  to  publish  a  fixed  freight  charge  for 
carrying  their  products  from  Vera  Cruz  to  Spain,  and  the  officials 
of  the  Casa,  in  reply  to  a  request  for  information,  recommended 
that,  as  it  was  not  the  custom  to  regulate  rates  on  outbound 
vessels,  it  would  be  well  to  maintain  the  same  rule  for  the  return 
voyage.^  In  conformity  with  this  opinion,  a  cedula  was  issued  by 
the  king  in  December  of  the  same  year.  Sometime  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  however,  the  practice  of  1572  was  reestablished, 
for  in  Veitia  Linaje's  day  a  flat  rate  of  fifty-eight  ducats  silver  per 
ton  was  in  force,  fourteen  paid  in  advance  at  Seville  and  forty- 
four  on  arrival  in  the  Indies.^  Finally,  in  the  Recopilacion  of  168 1 
we  find  codified  the  decree  of  December,  161 5,  again  leaving 
freights  both  at  Seville  and  in  the  Indies  to  be  regulated  by  the 
operation  of  supply  and  demand.^ 

The  Castilian  ton  or  "  tonelada  '^  was  equal  in  weight  to  twenty 
quintals  or  hundredweight,  and  in  Spanish  vessels  of  the  six- 
teenth and  seventeenth  centuries  was  estimated  to  represent  a 
space  of  something  over  fifty-six  cubic  feet.^  By  an  ordinance  of 
1543  was  minutely  prescribed  what  weight  and  bulk  of  each  article 
of  common  export  to  America  might  be  stowed  in  the  space  of  a 
tonelada,  and  this  schedule  was  posted,  with  other  important 
rules,  on  a  tablet  on  the  walls  of  the  Casa.  But  in  the  seventeenth 
century  such  regulations  had  disappeared,  the  calculation  of  these 

1  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  16,  par.  2.  *  Ibid.,  par.  3. 

'  Recop.,  lib.  ix,  tit.  31,  ley  6.  By  a  law  of  1592  it  was  forbidden  to  all  oj05cials 
connected  with  the  Casa,  from  the  president  down,  under  heavy  penalties,  to  compel 
shipmasters  to  accept  consignments  of  freight,  or  interfere  in  any  way  with  their 
entire  liberty  of  action. 

***...  siendo  cada  tonelada  el  tamano  de  dos  pipas,  6  el  de  ocho  codos  cubicos 
medidos  con  el  codo  Real  lineal  de  33  dedos,  de  los  que  una  vara  Castellana  tiene 
48.  ..."    Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  15,  par.  2. 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  285 

details  being  left  to  individual  arrangement  between  master  and 
shippers.^ 

As  it  was  customary  to  receive  the  major  part  of  the  freight 
charges  on  delivery  in  the  Indies,  in  order  to  meet  the  heavy 
expense  incidental  to  a  long  voyage  across  the  Atlantic  ship- 
owners and  masters  found  it  necessary  to  negotiate  loans  (bot- 
tomry bills)  on  the  security  of  their  vessels,  sometimes  with 
obligation  to  repay  to  correspondents  in  the  colonies.  Motives  of 
honesty  were  no  more  compelling  in  the  sixteenth  century  than  in 
the  twentieth,  and  as  the  organization  of  the  business  world  was 
much  simpler  then  than  now,  opportunity  for  fraud  was  all  the 
greater.  From  the  very  outset  of  the  American  trade,  shipmasters 
made  these  financial  transactions  the  occasion  for  dishonest  deal- 
ings, either  misrepresenting  the  value  or  proprietorship  of  the 
vessel,  or  borrowing  several  times  over  on  the  same  security.  As 
early  as  1507,  the  officials  of  the  Casa  were  obliged  to  issue  an 
order  that  all  masters,  before  obtaining  advances  of  money,  pre- 
sent themselves  at  the  Casa  with  information  as  to  the  ownership 
and  capacity  of  their  ships,  so  that  the  Oficiales  might  determine 
their  value  and  the  amount  which  could  safely  be  secured  upon 
them.  Record  of  the  transactions  was  thereafter  kept  in  the 
Casa's  books,  for  the  information  of  any  who  cared  to  see.  The 
penalty  for  disobedience  was  forfeiture  of  interest  in  the  vessel, 
a  fine  of  100  ducats  in  gold,  and  obligation  to  repay  twice  the  sum 
unlawfully  borrowed.  If  a  money  lender  disregarded  the  terms  of 
the  ordinance,  his  contract  was  unenforceable  in  any  court  of  law. 
The  rule  was  republished  in  March,  1 509,  when  its  provisions  were 
extended  to  merchants  who  took  up  money  on  goods  shipped  to 
America.  A  receipt  for  the  sums  borrowed  had  also  to  be  de- 
posited with  the  contador  of  the  Casa. 2 

After  1587  loans  on  ship  bottoms  were  registered  before  the 
prior  and  consuls,  and  limited  to  one  third  the  value  of  the  vessel. 
In  1621  the  limit  was  raised  to  two  thirds.  But  it  mattered  little 
what  the  rules  were,  if  they  were  not  observed.  Much  larger 
amounts  were  negotiated  without  license  from  the  Casa  or  the 

^  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  16,  par.  2-^. 

*  Viajes,  ii,  p.  320;  Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  v,  p.  loi. 


286  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

Consulado,  sometimes  to  double  the  worth  of  the  ship  involved. 
And  to  escape  the  letter  of  the  law,  the  notes  were  worded  as  a 
simple  promise  to  pay,  although  it  was  understood  that  the  ship 
was  the  security.  It  seems  that  in  the  seventeenth  century  this 
practice  was  quite  open,  with  the  knowledge  of  the  Consulado, 
business  men  declaring  that  within  the  legal  restrictions  few 
vessels  could  sail.  And  occasionally  a  master  was  found  who  con- 
sidered it  more  profitable  to  lose  his  ship  than  repay  the  money 
secured  upon  it.  But  if,  as  Veitia  Linaje  declares,  freights  earned 
on  a  voyage  to  America  were  often  greater  than  the  value  of  the 
vessel,  and  as  the  purpose  of  the  two-thirds  rule  was  merely  to 
protect  the  creditors,  these  irregularities  were  probably  less 
dangerous  than  might  at  first  sight  appear.  In  cases  of  bank- 
ruptcy, however,  loans  made  with  the  license  of  the  prior  and 
consuls  were  given  precedence  over  any  others. 

Marine  insurance  is  an  institution  much  older  than  the  dis- 
covery of  America,  and  was  from  the  first  applied  to  equalize  the 
dangers  and  losses  of  the  long  trans-Atlantic  voyage.  The  busi- 
ness was  imder  the  immediate  supervision  of  the  Consulado  of 
Seville,  half  of  whose  ordinances  relate  to  its  regulation;  but  as 
elsewhere  in  Europe  it  was  conducted  by  brokers  (corredores  de 
seguros)  who  acted  as  intermediaries  between  insurer  and  insured. 
The  broker  obtained  upon  the  policies  (polizas)  the  signature  of 
merchants  or  bankers  who  were  ready  to  take  a  risk,  with  the 
amount  each  ventured,  and  guaranteed  their  signature  with  his 
own;  and  he  kept  a  complete  record  of  each  policy  which  passed 
through  his  hands.  But  no  broker  might  assume  any  risks  for 
himself  or  for  another,  directly  or  indirectly,  under  penalty  of 
30,000  maravedis  fine  and  exclusion  from  his  profession. 

The  hull  of  a  ship  might  be  insured  to  two  thirds  of  its  value  for 
the  outbound  voyage,  and  for  the  return  to  such  amount  as  the 
prior  and  consuls  indicated.  But  artillery,  rigging,  and  freight 
receipts  might  not  be  included  without  invalidating  the  policy; 
and  if  money  was  borrowed  on  the  vessel,  that  amount  was 
deducted  from  the  insurable  value.  By  decrees  of  1587  and  1588, 
the  maximum  for  ship  insurance  was  reduced  from  two  thirds  to 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  287 

one  third.^  Yet  merchandise,  curiously  enough,  might  be  secured 
to  its  full  value  and  including  the  cost  of  the  policy,  provided  the 
goods  were  registered  in  the  ship's  papers. 

A  few  of  the  more  general  rules  it  may  be  of  interest  to  note 
here.  Insurance  ran  from  the  moment  the  merchandise  was 
embarked  on  barges  for  transfer  to  vessels  in  the  harbor,  and 
ended  only  when  the  goods  were  placed  safely  on  shore  at  the 
termination  of  the  voyage.  Premiums  had  to  be  paid  within  three 
months  of  the  signing  of  the  policy,  or  the  latter  was  void;  but 
should  all  or  part  of  the  goods  insured  fail  to  be  shipped,  the  owner 
might  recover  his  premium  if  he  made  claim  within  fifteen  days. 
Marine  policies  were  in  every  case  limited  to  a  period  of  two 
years,  and  any  claims  for  loss  or  damage  had  to  be  presented 
within  that  time.  But  if  a  ship  and  its  cargo  completely  disap- 
peared, after  the  lapse  of  a  year  and  a  half  the  owner  or  consignees 
might  present  claims  for  payment.^ 

Before  a  vessel  was  allowed  to  depart  from  Cadiz  or  San  Lucar, 
altogether  three  visitations  or  inspections  were  necessary;  one, 
already  alluded  to,  prior  to  lading  for  the  voyage,  another  held 
generally  after  the  lading  was  completed,  and  a  third  just  before 
the  ship  put  to  sea.  When  the  India  House  was  founded,  these 
examinations  were  made  by  the  three  jueces  oficiales  together  or 
more  probably  in  rotation.^  But  very  soon  special  officers  were 
employed  to  assist  in  such  duties.  The  first  time  we  hear  of  a 
visitador  is  in  a  cedula  of  December,  15 18,  which  ordered  the 
salaries  enjoyed  by  Diego  Rodriguez  Comitre  and  Bartolome 
Diaz  as  "  visitadores  de  naos  "  to  be  continued  to  them.  The 
office  therefore  existed  before  1 5 18.  In  another  decree,  of  August, 
1522,  visitadores  are  mentioned  again,  as  forbidden,  with  the 
jueces  of  the  Casa,  to  own  or  have  any  interest  in  ships  engaged  in 
commerce  with  America.*  To  secure  the  observance  of  the  many 
rules  and  restrictions  applied  to  the  colonial  trade,  everything 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  19,  par.  4. 

'  Of  premiums  returned,  the  insurer  always  retained  J  per  cent.  See  Appendix 
XI. 

'  Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1510,  nos.  9,  31. 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  24,  par.  2. 


288  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

depended  on  the  zeal  and  intelligence  displayed  in  the  preliminary 
inspections.  The  visitadores,  consequently,  were  supposed  to 
be  men  of  capacity  and  experience  in  the  structure,  repair  and 
careening  of  vessels,  as  well  as  versed  in  all  that  pertained  to  the 
lading  and  dressing  of  cargoes.  Their  position  was  always  re- 
garded as  one  of  distinction,  and  in  the  minutely  graded  order  of 
precedence  maintained  by  the  Casa  on  all  occasions,  they  ranked 
with  the  prior  and  consuls  of  the  merchant  gild.  Like  most  other 
offices  in  Hapsburg  Spain,  however,  theirs  was  sold  as  a  life 
tenure  to  the  highest  bidder,  the  proprietors  being  allowed  to 
nominate  to  the  Casa  deputies  to  serve  for  them.  Two  continued 
to  be  the  number  of  visitadores  till  1670,  when  a  third  was  added. 

By  1552  the  personal  intervention  of  the  jueces  oficiales  in 
these  inspections  had  become  somewhat  Hmited.  The  first  ex- 
amination was  conducted  by  one  or  both  of  the  visitadores,  who 
sent  to  the  Casa  in  writing  a  report  of  the  size  and  quality  of  the 
vessel,  and  the  alterations  or  repairs  proposed  to  make  it  accept- 
able for  the  voyage.^  At  the  same  time  they  received  an  oath  from 
the  master  that  he  would  take  on  board  no  priests,  friars  or  other 
persons  unless  they  possessed  a  license  from  the  Crown  or  from 
the  India  House;  and  they  indicated  what  stores  and  duphcate 
equipment,  such  as  tackle,  spars,  sails,  anchors,  cables,  etc.,  must 
be  procured  for  the  journey. 

Till  1553  the  second  examination  was  the  business  of  the  con- 
tador  of  the  Casa,  made  on  personal  application  of  the  owner  or 
master  when  the  ship  was  laded  and  ready  to  drop  down  the  river. 
The  contador  had  any  excess  cargo  disembarked,  and  inspected 
the  crew,  artillery,  munitions,  provisions  and  other  appointments 
of  the  vessel  to  see  that  the  ordinances  and  the  visitadores'  in- 
structions had  been  complied  with.^  After  1553,  with  the  increased 
draft  of  Atlantic  ships,  and  the  gradual  silting  up  of  the  river,  it 
was  usually  necessary  to  complete  the  lading  and  hold  the  second 
examination  at  San  Lucar ;  and  as  the  contador  was  prevented  by 
his  other  duties  from  travelling  to  that  port,  the  inspection 
devolved  upon  the  visitadores.^    Moreover  it  was  soon  found 

*  Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1552,  no.  153.  ^  Antuiiez  y  Acevedo,  p.  77. 

^  Ibid.,  no.  156. 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  289 

physically  impossible,  in  the  short  time  commonly  given  to  these 
inspections,  to  examine  the  nature,  quantity  and  quality  of  all  the 
provisions  on  board,  many  of  which  were  sealed  in  casks  or  stowed 
away  in  different  parts  of  the  ship.  For  these  reasons,  doubtless, 
there  was  later  introduced  the  practice  of  accepting  a  detailed 
statement,  signed  and  sworn  by  the  master,  mate  and  steward,  of 
the  food  and  other  stores  on  hand.  The  master  also  took  another 
oath  to  the  effect  that  everything  declared  belonged  to  the  ship, 
and  would  be  carried  on  the  voyage,  and  that  he  would  receive  no 
more  cargo  or  any  prohibited  articles  or  persons.  Indeed,  so  far  as 
was  humanly  possible,  this  harassed  mariner  was  allowed  no 
loophole  of  escape.  In  the  seventeenth  century,  the  second  visita- 
tion was  apparently  made  immediately  after  the  vessel  had  been 
careened  and  renovated,  and  before  lading,  and  only  then  were 
directions  given  as  to  the  artillery  and  other  equipment.^ 

The  third  inspection,  at  San  Lucar  just  before  sails  were  hoisted 
and  the  ship  put  to  sea,  although  of  a  general  character,  covering 
everything  attended  to  at  the  first  and  second,  was  particularly 
directed  to  the  cargo,  to  detect  any  smuggled  or  prohibited  mer- 
chandise. It  was  conducted  by  the  visitadores,  or  if  an  entire 
fleet  was  preparing,  by  one  of  the  jueces  oficiales  in  his  turn, 
assisted  by  the  visitadores.  They  were  authorized  to  compel  the 
master  to  unship  at  his  own  expense,  and  in  their  presence,  any- 
thing carried  contrary  to  rules  and  instructions;  and  if  the  same 
or  any  other  articles  were  taken  aboard  after  this  final  visitation, 
they  were  forfeited  to  the  royal  exchequer. ^  The  inspectors  were 
forbidden  to  pass  any  vessel  till  the  last  iota  had  been  complied 
with,  even  if  it  involved  the  loss  of  the  voyage,  nor  were  they 
permitted  to  accept  a  master's  promise  in  lieu  of  immediate 
performance. 

When,  in  the  event  of  overloading,  it  was  necessary  to  choose 
which  shipments  should  remain  on  board,  those  laded  at  Seville 
were  preferred  to  those  laded  at  San  Lucar,  and  of  goods  from  the 
same  place,  that  belonging  to  passengers  to  that  shipped  by  mer- 
chants. Seville  goods,  unless  unregistered  or  otherwise  confiscate, 

1  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  24,  par.  9. 
'  Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1552,  no.  187. 


290  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

were  sent  back  to  the  Casa  de  Contratacion  to  be  delivered  to  the 
owners  at  their  expense.^ 

The  third  examination  was  also  extended  in  1569  to  ships  of  the 
armada,  because  of  the  growing  practice  of  concealing  merchan- 
dise upon  them,  the  owners  or  factors  sailing  as  soldiers  or  in  some 
other  official  capacity.  Inspection  was  especially  needed  in  the 
years  when,  according  as  the  poUcy  of  the  Casa  fluctuated  one 
way  or  the  other,  the  convoys  were  forbidden  to  carry  any 
registers  at  all.  But  there  is  every  indication  that  it  remained 
little  more  than  a  formality. 

The  visitadores  received  a  salary  per  diem,  apportioned  among 
the  masters  or  owners  of  the  ships  examined,  as  well  as  the  hire  of 
a  sloop  they  employed  in  going  about  the  harbor;  but  they  were 
forbidden  to  accept,  or  the  masters  to  offer,  any  collation,  gift  or 
other  perquisite  in  addition  to  the  legal  remuneration. ^  A  testi- 
monial of  the  inspection  was  inserted  in  each  ship's  register,  and 
guards  were  detailed  to  remain  on  board  till  the  vessel  reached  the 
open  sea.  In  Veitia  Linaje's  time  this  practice  had  fallen  into 
abeyance,  except  for  ships  of  the  armada,  having  proved,  as  this 
same  writer  declares  from  his  own  experience,  utterly  futile  to 
accomplish  the  purpose  intended.  For  usually  the  men  so  em- 
ployed secured  their  place  through  influence,  and  not  on  their 
character  or  reputation;  wherefore  they  were  easily  suborned  and 
became  merely  the  instruments  for  more  extended  fraud. ^ 

After  1565  the  captain  general  of  the  fleet  was  expected  to 
be  present  at  the  last  visitation,  but  the  rule  came  to  be  dis- 
regarded in  the  seventeenth  century.  When  a  president  was  set 
over  the  Casa  de  Contratacion,  he,  too,  frequently  went  down  to 
San  Lucar  for  the  dispatch  or  reception  of  the  fleets,  either  alone 
or  with  the  juez  oficial  whose  turn  it  was  to  be  there.  But  we  are 
told  that  this  duty  was  always  regarded  by  the  officials  of  the 
India  House  as  one  of  the  most  onerous  connected  with  their 
institution. 

Except  for  a  score  of  years  after  1588,  the  visitadores  of  the 
Casa  were  also  charged  with  the  examination  of  ships  sailing  from 

^  Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1552,  nos.  186,  188,  192.  «  Ibid.,  nos.  189,  195. 

'  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  i,  par.  13. 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  29 1 

Cadiz,  one  of  them  making  the  journey  to  that  city  whenever  his 
services  were  called  for.  From  1588  to  16 10  there  was  a  separate 
inspector  appointed  for  the  sister  port,  but  after  16 10,  although 
the  Cadiz  Juzgado  repeatedly  urged  its  claim  to  independence  in 
this  regard,  the  Council  never  saw  fit  to  renew  the  concession. 
Inspection  of  merchantmen  in  colonial  ports  belonged  to  the 
treasury  officers,  or  oficiales  reales,  sometimes  aided  by  a  deputy 
of  the  local  governor  or  by  the  fiscal  of  the  audiencia. 

The  regular  duties  of  the  visitador  extended  only  to  the  dis- 
patch of  fleets  and  navios  de  registro  to  the  New  World.  When  a 
returning  fleet  dropped  anchor  at  San  Lucar  (or  in  earlier  years 
before  Seville  itself),  one  of  the  jueces  oficiales,  accompanied  by 
the  clerk  of  registers  with  copies  of  the  papers  sent  on  the  outward 
voyage,  went  down  to  the  port  to  receive  it  and  visit  each  of 
the  ships;  ^  and  no  person,  whether  sailor,  soldier  or  passenger, 
might  leave,  or  any  articles  be  disembarked,  till  this  formality 
was  accomplished.  The  visitadores,  however,  as  experienced 
in  these  matters,  were  sometimes  deputed  to  advise  in  the  ex- 
amination. This  was  intended  to  be  of  the  most  inquisitorial 
character.  Not  only  was  there  search  for  unregistered,  or  fraud- 
ulently registered,  bullion  and  other  precious  commodities;  not 
only  was  there  verification  of  the  muster  sheets,  and  of  the  artil- 
lery and  other  appointments  of  each  vessel,  to  see  that  they  cor- 
responded with  the  requirements  originally  set  at  the  departure 
from  Spain;  but,  according  to  the  ordinances  of  1552,  each 
mariner  and  passenger  was  to  be  approached  separately  and  made 
toijvear  if  he  had  in  any  way  contravened  the  host  of  regulations 
touching  the  India  navigation,  or  knew  of  any  one  who  had. 
Within  the  scope  of  this  cross-examination  were  included  smug- 
gling, false  registry,  blasphemy,  gambhng,  lechery,  failure  to  have 
a  license,  concealment  of  Indian  servants  or  slaves  or  unlicensed 

*  Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1510,  no.  9;  1552,  nos.  211-215. 

Till  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  same  official  went  to  meet  the 
returning  fleet  who  had  dispatched  it  to  the  Indies.  In  the  sixteenth  century,  he 
received  for  this  5  ducats  a  day,  in  the  seventeenth,  6  ducats.  If  the  president 
went  down  to  inspect  the  fleets,  he  was  paid  1 2  ducats.  His  expenses,  with  con- 
stables, notaries,  a  skiff  to  go  about  in  the  harbor,  etc.,  amounted  to  another  16 
or  18  ducats,  a  very  heavy  charge. 


292  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

negroes,  deaths  en  route  and  disposition  of  the  belongings  of  the 
deceased,  whether  the  master  had  called  at  or  delivered  goods  to 
forbidden  ports,  had  borrowed  equipment  for  the  time  of  inspec- 
tion, carried  a  full  quota  of  seamen,  etc.  The  juez  oficial  also 
inquired  of  the  crews  what  wages  were  still  owing  them,  and 
ordered  pa3anent  by  the  master  of  the  vessel  within  three  days. 
Finally,  when  the  inspection  was  completed,  guards  were  sta- 
tioned on  each  of  the  ships  to  prevent  the  secret  abstraction  of 
contraband  articles  which  had  escaped  the  judge's  eyes. 

Although  returning  fleets  were  consistently  forbidden  to  put  in 
at  Cadiz,  a  member  of  the  Casa  was  occasionally  sent  there  to 
compel  ships  for  any  reason  appearing  in  that  port  to  pass  on  to 
San  Lucar,  or  if  they  were  in  no  condition  to  go  further,  to  receive 
and  examine  them  there.  From  Cadiz  bullion  was  not  carried 
overland  to  the  Casa  de  Contratacion,  but  by  sea  on  sloops  to 
San  Lucar,  and  thence  up  the  Guadalquivir  to  Seville.  Even  in 
time  of  war,  when  there  was  always  danger  of  the  presence  of 
enemy  ships  outside,  transport  overland  was  prohibited,  either 
the  "  barcos  de  plata  "  being  convoyed  by  men-of-war  along  the 
coast,  or  the  remission  of  bullion  suspended  till  peace  returned.^ 
At  San  Lucar  the  treasure  was  transshipped  to  large  river  boats 
called  "  gavarras,"  the  chests  and  bars  from  each  galleon  being 
kept  carefully  distinct  and  separate. 

Most  of  these  rules  had  taken  shape  before  the  close  of  the  reign 
of  Charles  V,  and  they  were  with  wearisome  monotony  recalled 
to  the  attention  of  the  king's  officers  in  repeated  decrees  of  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries.  Yet  in  no  matter  supervised 
by  the  India  House  was  fraud  more  common  or  more  disastrous 
than  in  this  of  the  equipment,  gauging,  and  lading  of  ships  in  the 
American  trade.  Multiplication  of  precautions,  piling  Pelion 
upon  Ossa,  had  no  appreciable  effect.  Generals,  masters,  pas- 
sengers, sailors  and  merchants  found  a  common  interest  in  render- 
ing the  laws  nugatory,  and  members  of  the  Casa  and  even  of  the 
Council  of  the  Indies  must  frequently  have  had  a  hand  in  their 
irregular  practices.  Atlantic  vessels,  whether  merchantmen  or 
men-of-war,  were  frequently  so  embarrassed  with  goods  and  pas- 
1  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  i,  cap.  9,  par.  20. 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  293 

sengers  that  it  was  scarcely  possible  to  defend  them  if  attacked. 
Shipmasters  hired  anchors,  cables,  provisions  and  especially  artil- 
lery ,1  to  make  up  the  required  equipment,  and  men  to  fill  the 
muster  rolls,  against  the  time  when  the  visitadores  came  on  board, 
getting  rid  of  both  men  and  stores  immediately  after.  Merchant 
ships  were  so  feebly  manned,  owing  to  the  excessive  overcrowding, 
that  it  was  all  they  could  do  to  withstand  the  least  spell  of  bad 
weather,  let  alone  outmanoeuvre  a  swift-saiHng  privateer. 

Foreigners  remarked  upon  this  early  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
The  Italian  traveller,  Benzoni,  writes  in  his  History  of  the  New 
World: 

.  .  .  the  principal  reason  of  the  French  getting  so  many  of  the  ships  belong- 
ing to  the  Spaniards  was  the  avarice  of  the  owners;  for  on  quitting  Spain, 
such  was  their  avidity  to  fill  up  with  merchandise  and  passengers,  that  they 
did  not  put  the  due  number  of  guns  on  board,  in  case  they  had  to  defend 
themselves  if  attacked  by  an  enemy's  ship;  nor  even  the  number  ordered  by 
the  Council  of  the  Indies.  .  .  .  The  Council,  moreover,  appointed  certain 
commissaries  to  take  special  care  by  going  to  San  Lucar,  to  visit  the  ships 
when  they  were  about  starting,  and  ascertain  whether  they  were  provided 
according  to  the  orders  issued.  But  the  captains  of  the  ships,  by  putting  a 
piece  of  gold  into  the  hands  of  the  commissaries,  made  them  say  that  all  was 
right;  and  with  this  arrangement  they  went  away  to  Seville,  waited  on  their 
superiors  at  the  Contract  office,  and  swore  to  God  that  everything  was  in 
perfect  order,  and  that  the  ship,  whatever  it  might  be,  was  equal  to  fighting 
against  four  French  vessels.  In  this  way  three  or  four  Spanish  ships  used  to 
start,  though  the  best  of  them  carried  only  two  or  three  iron  guns,  half  eaten 
through  with  rust,  and  one  keg  of  indifferent  powder.  On  their  return,  if  a 
little  French  galleon  (galleoncette)  well-armed  happened  to  meet  a  ship, 
even  of  1500  or  2000  "  sahne  "  (about  three  or  four  hundred  tons)  they 
attacked  her  without  the  least  fear,  knowing  how  ill  Spanish  ships  were 
provided.  .  .  .» 

Another  consequence  of  the  utter  disregard  of  rules  and  regula- 
tions was  the  frightful  prevalence  of  shipwreck.  Advance  in 
nautical  knowledge  and  experience,  improvements  in  the  art  of 
shipbuilding,  seemed  to  make  little  difference.  From  beginning 
to  end,  the  passage  to  and  from  America  on  a  Spanish  vessel  was 

^  As  early  as  1507,  a  decree  had  to  be  issued  forbidding  any  one  to  lend  or  rent  to 
shipmasters  arms,  munitions,  etc.,  for  the  visit  of  the  Casa's  ofl5cials,  under  penalty 
of  forfeiture  of  the  articles  involved.    Colecc.  de  doc,  2d  ser.,  v,  p.  loi. 

2  Benzoni,  History  of  the  New  World,  tr.  by  W.  H.  Smyth.  (Hakluyt  Soc.,  ser.  i, 
no.  21.) 


294  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

a  hazardous  undertaking.  The  chances  seemed  nearly  even  that 
the  passenger  would  either  fail  to  reach  his  destination,  or  arrive 
only  after  enduring  all  the  terrors  and  vicissitudes  of  the  ^eep. 
One  wonders,  sometimes,  that  Spaniards  entrusted  their  goods  or 
their  persons  so  readily  to  unseaworthy  boats,  inadequately 
manned  and  equipped.  The  wonder  grows  when  we  recollect  that 
the  harbors  of  Cadiz,  San  Lucar  and  Vera  Cruz  offered  little  more 
protection  from  wind  and  storm  than  the  open  sea,  and  that  West 
Indian  hurricanes  were  as  fatal  to  shipping  then  as  now.  The 
explanation  is  probably  to  be  found,  as  Benzoni  suggests,  in  the 
avarice  as  well  of  the  merchant  exporter  as  of  the  shipmaster.  It 
was  a  great  lottery,  this  American  commerce.  Both  preferred  to 
take  a  long  chance,  with  the  prospect  of  enormous  winnings. 

The  toll,  however,  was  a  terrible  one.  To  cite  but  a  few  in- 
stances in  the  period  following  1550,  when  the  India  navigation 
was  well  organized :  four  vessels  were  wrecked  upon  the  shores  of 
Florida  in  1554.  In  1555  the  flagship  of  Cosme  Rodriguez  Farfan 
was  cast  away  on  the  Andalusian  coast.  His  fleet  had  been  scat- 
tered by  a  storm  in  the  West  Indies,  and  three  ships  driven  into 
San  Juan  de  Porto  Rico.  In  1556  an  armada  of  three  was  sent 
to  San  Juan  under  Gonzalo  de  Carvajal  to  collect  the  bullion 
from  these  ships,  and  on  the  return  two  of  the  three  were  wrecked 
on  the  coast  of  Portugal.  In  1563  were  destroyed  by  a  storm 
seven  vessels  of  the  flota  lying  in  the  harbor  of  Nombre  de  Dios. 
And  in  the  same  year,  of  the  Vera  Cruz  fleet  five  were  cast  away 
on  the  dangerous  reefs  in  the  Gulf  of  Campeche.  Two  vessels  of 
the  Tierra  Firme  squadron  were  lost  in  a  hurricane  in  1564,  and 
several  upon  the  island  of  Dominica  three  years  later.  Four  ships 
of  the  New  Spain  flota  were  wrecked  on  the  Tabasco  coast  in  157 1, 
and  five  more  in  1572.  In  158 1,  on  the  voyage  to  Nombre  de 
Dios,  one  ship  sank  in  the  Caribbean  Sea,  and  two  more  off  the 
coast  of  Spain  on  the  homeward  journey;  while  in  1590  fifteen 
vessels  of  the  flota  of  Antonio  Navarro  were  destroyed  by  a 
"  norther  "  in  the  harbor  of  Vera  Cruz  and  two  hundred  men 
drowned.  In  the  following  year  the  flagship  of  the  New  Spain 
flota  went  down  in  a  storm  with  all  on  board,  and  sixteen  of  the 
fleet  were  stranded  on  the  island  of  Tercera  in  the  Azores.   The 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  295 

difficult  sand  bar  across  the  mouth  of  the  river  at  San  Lucar  also 
provided  its  quota  of  disasters.  The  flagship  and  two  other 
vessels  of  the  Mexican  fleet  were  wrecked  there  as  they  were 
departing  in  1579,  and  another  vessel  of  the  same  fleet  in  1580. 
In  1587  six  ships  from  Tierra  Firme  were  cast  away  on  the  bar  as 
they  tried  to  enter,  but  the  crews  and  the  treasure  were  saved.  In 
the  harbor  of  Cadiz,  fifteen  were  driven  ashore  in  a  terrible  storm, 
just  as  the  fleet  was  about  to  sail  in  1563,  and  a  similar  accident 
occurred  there  eleven  years  later,  in  1574. 

In  the  seventeenth  century  conditions  scarcely  improved:  in 
1600  a  galeon  de  Indias  was  wrecked  upon  Cape  St.  Vincent,  and 
another  in  1601;  in  the  latter  year  fourteen  at  the  entrance  to 
Vera  Cruz  in  a  sudden  norther,  one  thousand  men  perishing  and 
two  millions  lost  in  merchandise;  in  1603  the  flagship  and  two 
others  of  the  New  Spain  fleet  on  the  island  of  Guadaloupe,  with 
the  loss  of  another  million  in  cargo,  and  a  vessel  of  the  same  fleet 
on  the  coast  of  Hispaniola  on  the  return  voyage;  in  1605  four 
galleons  of  the  armada  of  Luis  de  Cordoba  on  the  coast  of 
Cumana  near  Margarita;  in  the  next  year  several  more  vessels  of 
a  flota  commanded  by  the  same  general,  in  which  the  latter  was 
lost  and  millions  of  treasure;  in  1607  two  galleons  of  the  Mexican 
flota  in  which  perished  the  general  and  six  hundred  men;  in  1608 
the  flagship  of  Juan  de  Salas  Valdes  in  the  Azores;  the  flagship 
of  the  same  general  in  1609,  and  in  16 10  that  of  the  Tierra  Firme 
fleet;  in  16 14  a  Tierra  Firme  galleon  on  the  voyage  to  Spain,  and 
seven  vessels  bound  for  Vera  Cruz  near  Cape  Catoche;  etc.^ 

As  an  example  of  what  the  American  flotas  had  to  anticipate  if 
they  fell  in  the  way  of  a  West  Indian  hurricane,  may  be  cited  the 
experiences  of  the  smnmer  of  1622.  The  Mexican  fleet  of  that 
year,  commanded  by  Francisco  de  Sosa,  with  Antonio  Liri  as 
almirante,  was  ill-omened  from  the  start,  for  it  lost  its  flagship 
and  another  large  vessel  while  sailing  out  from  San  Lucar.  Put- 
ting to  sea  from  Vera  Cruz  on  June  7,  it  took  forty  days  to  reach 
Havana  on  account  of  storms  and  contrary  winds.  But  this  was 

1  Many  of  these  data  were  taken  from  the  lists  of  shipwrecks  published  as  appen- 
dices to  volumes  ii  and  iii  of  Fernandez  Duro's  Armada  EspaOola.  But  the  eintire 
accuracy  of  these  lists  is  questionable. 


296  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

only  a  prelude  to  what  it  experienced  after  emerging  from  the 
Bahama  Channel.  There  the  fleet  was  dispersed  by  a  hurricane, 
some  of  the  ships  dismasted,  others  filled  with  water,  and  one 
broken  to  pieces  altogether  with  the  loss  of  ninety  men. 

This  New  Spain  fleet,  however,  encountered  only  the  edge  of 
the  storm.  The  galleons  from  Tierra  Firme  emerged  from  the 
port  of  Havana  for  Spain  on  September  4.  They  consisted  of 
seventeen  vessels  convoyed  by  a  squadron  of  eight  men-of-war 
and  three  pataches,  the  armada  commanded  by  Lope  Diaz 
de  Armendariz,  Marquis  of  Cadereyta,  with  the  distinguished 
mariner,  Tomas  de  La  Raspuru,  as  almirante.  Shortly  after  they 
put  to  sea,  the  cyclone  burst  upon  that  region  with  extraordinary 
fury.  About  Havana  itself  many  houses  were  overthrown  and 
plantations  destroyed.  But  the  fleet  was  struck  by  the  storm  in 
the  most  dangerous  part  of  the  Channel,  where  there  was  no 
room  to  manoeuvre.  Of  the  convoy,  the  galleon,  Santa  Margarita, 
was  driven  upon  the  Martires  and  instantly  went  to  pieces;  the 
almiranta,  N.  Senora  de  Atocha,  foundered;  the  N.  Senora  del 
Rosario  was  cast  away  upon  the  island  of  Tortuga,  and  one  of  the 
pataches  upon  reefs  in  the  same  neighborhood.  Four  of  the 
seventeen  merchantmen  sank,  and  only  four  of  the  rest  remained 
with  their  mast^  standing.  More  than  a  thousand  men  were 
drowned,  including  the  commander  of  the  flota,  Pedro  Pasquier, 
and  the  loss  of  bullion  and  merchandise  was  reckoned  at  over 
four  million  pesos.  The  ships  which  survived  made  their  way 
as  best  they  could  back  to  Havana,  and  wintered  there,  as  there 
were  not  sufficient  stores  for  the  repair  of  so  great  a  catastrophe.^ 
The  hurricane  also  struck  a  small  armada  of  guardacostas,  and 
wrecked  the  flagship  and  two  other  vessels. 

When  news  of  the  disaster  reached  the  Spanish  court,  the  gov- 
ernment, acting  with  unwonted  promptness,  ordered  three  gal- 
leons to  the  island  of  Madeira  to  rescue  the  almiranta  from  New 
Spain  reported  there  in  a  sinking  condition,  and  the  squadron  of 
Antonio  Oquendo  to  carry  spars  and  cordage  for  the  refitting 
of  the  shattered  fleets;  while  other  men-of-war  under  Fadrique 
de  Toledo  and  Juan  Fajardo  were  sent  to  cruise  near  Cape 
1  Fernandez  Duro,  op.  ciL,  iv,  pp.  40  f. 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  297 

St.  Vincent  for  Dutch  and  Barbary  ships  reported  as  sailing  to 
that  coast. 

One  of  the  principal  reasons,  doubtless,  why  these  disasters 
assumed  such  alarming  proportions  was  the  lack  of  good  sailors 
and  pilots.  In  spite  of  the  regulations,  crews  were  recruited  with 
men  of  every  sort  and  condition,  who  used  this  means  of  crossing 
over  to  and  remaining  in  the  Indies  without  encountering  the 
emigration  laws,  and  whose  gross  ignorance  placed  the  ship  in 
jeopardy  with  every  passing  squall.  When  the  flotas  arrived  at 
their  American  destination  and  the  hatches  were  opened,  fre- 
quently the  sailors  could  not  be  compelled  to  unlade  the  merchan- 
dise, all  immediately  deserting  the  ships,  or  even,  it  is  said,  setting 
fire  to  the  cargoes  to  render  their  escape  more  certain. 


CHAPTER  XII 

SfflPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  (II) 

In  describing  the  organization  of  the  Casa  de  Contratacion,  some- 
thing was  said  of  that  institution  as  a  hydrographic  bureau  and 
school  of  navigation.  The  Casa  very  early  had  its  own  pilots 
and  cosmographers,  as  well  as  a  professor  of  cosmography,  and 
created  a  technical  office  where  charts  were  designed  or  authenti- 
cated for  use  by  Spanish  seamen. 

The  great  need  of  a  nautical  school  was  emphasized  in  the 
cedula  of  instructions  to  Americo  Vespucci,  the  first  pilot  major, 
in  August,  1508,  a  few  months  after  his  appointment.  Very  few 
mariners  at  that  date  could  have  any  real  knowledge  of  the 
Atlantic  route  or  of  the  American  coasts,  and  the  sailing  of  igno- 
rant pilots  resulted  not  only  in  the  loss  of  ships  and  the  discourage- 
ment of  trade,  but  also  in  the  confusion  of  nautical  knowledge 
through  the  reporting  of  false  or  inaccurate  observations.  The 
instructions  read  as  follows: 

Por  cuanto  a  nuestra  noticia  es  venido,  e  por  experiencia  habemos  visto 
que,  por  no  ser  los  pilotos  tan  expertos  como  seria  menester,  e  tan  estructos 
en  lo  que  deben  saber,  que  les  baste  para  regir  e  gobernar  los  navios  que 
naveguen  en  los  viajes,  que  se  hacen  por  el  mar  Occeano  a  las  nuestras  Yslas 
e  Tierra  firme,  que  tenemos  en  la  parte  de  las  Yndias,  e  por  ...  no  tener 
fundamento  para  saber  tomar,  por  el  cuadrante  e  astrolabio,  el  altura,  ni 
saber  la  cuenta  dello,  les  han  acaecido  muchos  yerros,  e  las  gentes  que,  debajo 
de  su  gobernacion  navegan  han  pasado  mucho  peligro,  de  que  nuestro 
Senor  ha  seydo  deservido,  e  en  nuestra  hacienda  e  de  los  mercaderes,  que  alia 
contratan,  se  ha  recibido  mucho  dano  e  perdida,  e  para  remediar  lo  susodicho 
.  .  .  mandamos  que  todos  los  pilotos  de  nuestros  reinos  e  senorios  .  .  .  que 
quisieran  ir  por  pilotos  en  la  dicha  navegacion,  sean  instruidos  e  sepan  lo  que 
es  necessario  saber  en  el  cuadrante  e  astrolabio,  para  que  junta  la  platica  con 
la  teorica  se  puedan  aprovechar  dello  en  los  viajes  que  hicieren  en  las  dichas 
partes,  e  que,  sin  lo  saber  no  puedan  ir  en  los  dichos  navios  por  pilotos,  nin 
ganar  soldadas  por  pilotage,  ni  los  mercaderes  se  puedan  concertar  con  ellos 
para  que  sean  pilotos,  ni  los  maestres  los  puedan  recibir  en  los  navios,  sin  que 
primero  sean  examinados  por  Vos,  Merigo  Vespuchi  Nuestro  Piloto  mayor  e 
les  sea  dada  por  Vos  carta  de  examinacion  e  aprobacion,  de  como  saben  cada 

298 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  299 

uno  dellos  lo  susodicho,  con  la  cual  carta  mandamos  que  scan  tenidos  6 
recibidos  por  pilotos  espertos  doquier  que  la  mostraren  .  .  .  Vos  mandamos 
que  les  enseneis  en  vuestra  casa  en  Sevilla  a  todos  los  que  lo  quisieren  saber, 
pagandovos  vuestro  trabajo.^ 

The  extent  of  the  theoretical  knowledge  of  masters  and  pilots 
who  conducted  vessels  to  and  from  the  Indies  is  also  revealed  in  a 
memorial  presented  by  the  pilot  major  in  151 2,  saying  that  a  cer- 
tain Juan  Rodriguez  Sardo,  although  of  practical  experience  as  an 
American  pilot,  should  be  given  a  term  of  six  months  in  which  to 
learn  the  use  of  the  quadrant  or  the  astrolabe.  The  oficiales  of  the 
Casa  agreed,  but  permitted  him  to  make  one  more  voyage,  for 
which  it  seems  he  was  already  prepared,  without  knowing  how  to 
make  observations  of  the  sun.^  In  view  of  this  primitive  state  of 
nautical  science  among  Spanish  mariners,  it  is  surprising  that  so 
many  fleets,  like  those  of  Ovando,  Diego  Columbus,  Pedrarias 
Davila,  etc.,  as  well  as  single  ships  Hcensed  or  unlicensed,  should 
have  made  voyages  with  comparatively  little  mishap.  Without 
instructions  or  a  great  deal  of  experience,  they  sailed  everywhere, 
skirting  unknown  capes  and  bays,  which  they  described  and 
crudely  located  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  followed  after  in  the 
same  course. 

The  pilot  major  was,  therefore,  in  the  beginning  a  teacher,  who 
conducted  a  school  at  his  own  residence  in  Seville  and  received 
fees  from  his  students.  He  himself  also  examined  candidates  for 
the  profession  of  pilot,  and  granted  the  necessary  certificate,  with- 
out the  interposition  of  any  higher  official.  No  pilot  might  sail  in 
that  capacity  to  the  Indies  without  first  passing  this  examination, 
even  though  he  had  fulfilled  similar  requirements  elsewhere.'  It 
is  clear  that  such  extensive  power  might  become  a  source  of 
abuse.  As  the  Casa  possessed  no  monopoly  of  the  teaching  of  cos- 
mography and  map  making,  the  examiner  might  be  tempted  to 
look  with  especial  leniency  on  candidates  who  had  come  to  him  for 
instruction;  or  he  might  charge  excessive  fees  for  the  examina- 
tion. It  seems  that  in  1534  Sebastian  Cabot  was  accused  of  some 

1  Puente  y  Olea,  Los  irabajos  geogrdficos  de  la  Casa  de  la  Contratacidn,  p.  65; 
Viajes,  iii,  p.  299. 

2  Fernandez  Duro,  La  Armada  Espanola,  i,  p.  120. 
^  Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1552,  nos.  135,  143. 


300  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

such  practices.  A  royal  cedula  of  March  14  of  that  year  instructed 
the  Casa: 

que  fagais  ynformacion,  e  sepais  que  derechos  son  los  quel  dicho  Sebastian 
Caboto  a  llevado,  e  lleva  por  el  examen  de  los  dichos  Pilotos,  e  como  e  de  que 
manera  los  a  examinado  e  examina,  e  que  delyxencias  son  los  que  face  en  los 
tales  exdmenes  .  .  . ;  ^ 

but  as  nine  months  later  Cabot  was  still  superintending  these 
examinations,  the  charges  were  evidently  unsubstantiated.  How- 
ever, ordinances  were  enacted  by  Charles  V  toward  the  end  of  his 
reign  forbidding  the  pilot  major  to  teach  the  science  of  naviga- 
tion and  the  use  of  nautical  instruments,  on  pain  of  ten  ducats 
fine  and  the  exclusion  of  his  pupil  from  examination  for  two  years. 
He  was  at  the  same  time  ordered  to  exact  no  fees  from  candidates, 
or  receive  victuals  or  gifts  of  any  kind.^  In  the  meantime  what 
instruction  was  given  at  the  Casa  was  necessarily  transferred  to 
the  cosmographers,  till  in  December,  1552,  a  regular  chair  in 
cosmography  was  created.^ 

By  the  year  1552,  moreover,  the  examinations  were  no  longer 
conducted  by  the  pilot  major  alone,  but  with  him  were  associated 
the  cosmographers  of  the  Casa  and  a  number  (at  least  six)  of 
experienced  pilots  chosen  from  among  those  who  happened  at  the 
moment  to  be  in  Seville.  Each  was  duly  sworn  to  give  a  faithful 
decision,  and  a  majority  vote  of  those  present  was  sufficient  to 
warrant  the  issue  of  a  certificate.^  After  September,  1604,  one  of 
the  jueces  oficiales  presided  at  the  examination  instead  of  the 
pilot  major.  Each  candidate  was  required  to  give  evidence  before- 
hand, supported  by  four  witnesses,  that  he  was  a  native  or  nat- 
uralized Spaniard,  at  least  twenty-four  years  of  age,  of  good 
character  and  lineage,  and  of  at  least  six  years'  experience  in  the 
navigation  to  America.    For  the  last  quaUfication,  two  of  the 

*  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xxxii,  p.  479. 

2  Reissued  as  nos.  130,  132,  and  143  of  the  ordinances  of  1552. 

'  Between  1596  and  1612,  however,  the  professorship  of  cosmography  was 
united  with  the  office  of  pilot  major  in  the  person  of  Rodrigo  de  Zamorano. 

According  to  Veitia  Linaje,  in  the  later  sixteenth  century  there  was  a  second 
pilot  major  for  the  examination  of  navigators  to  the  Rio  ds  la  Plata.  But  the  office 
evidently  was  not  long  continued.    Lib.  ii,  cap.  11,  par.  2;  cap.  12,  par.  19. 

*  Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1552,  nos.  128,  139. 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  3OI 

witnesses  had  to  be  pilots  who  had  sailed  in  the  same  ship  with 
him.  The  information  was  given  in  the  presence  of  the  pilot 
major  (and  later  the  deputies  of  the  mariners'  gild),  and  read 
before  the  assembled  examiners  prior  to  the  opening  of  the  exami- 
nation.* The  candidate  was  tested,  so  far  as  maritime  geography 
was  concerned,  for  a  particular  route  previously  indicated,  such  as 
to  Tierra  Firme,  or  to  New  Spain,  or  to  the  Rio  de  la  Plata,  and  if 
he  chose  later  to  serve  as  pilot  in  another  region,  had  to  be 
examined  a  second  time.  The  pilot  major  and  cosmographers 
might  ask  as  many  questions  as  they  liked,  the  visiting  pilots  were 
limited  each  to  three.  If  a  candidate  was  rejected,  he  might  not 
come  up  for  reexamination  without  first  making  another  voyage 
to  the  Indies,  and  an  additional  voyage  was  also  required  of  the 
successful  candidate  before  he  was  permitted  himself  to  act  as  an 
examiner.2  The  examinations  were  held  within  the  walls  of  the 
Casa,  generally  on  a  holiday  (in  the  seventeenth  century,  in  the 
hall  assigned  to  the  Consulado). 

As  was  the  case  with  every  other  department  of  the  Casa's 
activities,  these  examinations  were  not  conducted  in  the  spirit 
intended  by  the  Crown.  Already  in  1534,  as  we  have  seen,  an 
inquiry  was  made  into  the  official  behavior  of  Sebastian  Cabot. 
In  August,  1547,  the  Emperor  wrote  to  Cabot  reiterating  that 
no  unnaturaKzed  foreigners  be  admitted;  for,  he  continued,  he 
understood  that  the  pilot  major  examined  any  one  who  presented 
himself,  foreigner  or  native,  without  insisting  on  any  of  the  con- 
ditions prescribed.^  A  short  time  after,  in  1551,  a  letter  from  a 
Sevillan  pilot,  Alonso  Zapata,  to  Dr.  Heman  Perez,  one  of  the 
Council  of  the  Indies  who  had  been  to  Seville  as  inspector  or 
visitador  of  the  Casa,  charged  still  more  serious  irregularities.* 
The  acting  pilot  major,  Diego  Sanchez  Colchero,  an  old  man  of 

1  Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1552,  nos.  135,  136;  A.  de  I.,  146.  i.  9,  lib.  ii,  fol.  55  (testi- 
mony of  the  pilot  major,  Alonso  de  Chaves,  1561). 

It  seems  that  while  Spain  and  Portugal  were  united,  Portuguese  pilots  who  held 
a  certificate  from  their  Crown  were  admitted  to  examination  in  Seville  for  employ- 
ment in  the  negro  slave  traffic  between  Guinea  and  the  West  Indies. 

*  Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1552,  no.  140. 

2  Endnas,  i,  p.  457. 

*  A.  de  I.,  153.  I.  8.  . 


302  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

over  seventy,  was  reputed  to  receive  "  gifts  "  which  blinded  him 
to  discrepancies  in  the  candidate's  statements.  Pedro  de  Medina, 
another  of  the  examiners,  shared  the  bribes  with  him.  Alonso  de 
Chaves,  cosmographer  of  the  Casa,  was  aware  of  the  evil,  but 
maintained  a  neutral  attitude,  declaring  that  he  could  do  nothing 
to  remedy  the  situation.  On  the  one  hand,  he  refused  to  have  part 
in  any  information  to  the  king,  on  the  other,  he  withheld  his  vote 
from  every  candidate  who  presented  himself.  Sancho  Gutierrez, 
a  very  young  man,  tried  to  follow  an  honest  course,  but  all  the 
others  were  against  him.  In  another  letter  to  Dr.  Perez,  Zapata 
says  that  in  Portugal  any  pilot  or  master  who  lost  his  ship  through 
his  own  ignorance  or  negligence  was  deprived  for  a  time  of  his 
certificate,  and  he  urges  that  the  same  custom  be  followed  in 
Spain. 

Instructions  from  Dr.  Perez  himself  to  the  Casa,  in  October, 
1 55 1,  shed  further  light  upon  the  matter.  He  relates  that  money 
was  received  not  only  for  the  examinations,  but  for  accepting 
witnesses  who  testified  to  the  fitness  of  the  candidates;  that  the 
latter  were  informed  beforehand  of  the  questions  which  would  be 
put  to  them;  that  in  the  preceding  two  years  between  thirty  and 
forty  foreigners  had  been  admitted  as  pilots  or  masters;  and  that 
in  the  same  time  over  twenty-five  vessels  had  been  lost  with 
crews  and  cargoes.  He  also  cites  the  instance  of  a  certain  Alejo 
Alvarer  of  the  port  of  Ayamonte,  who  paid  sixteen  ducats  for  his 
examination.  This  state  of  affairs  probably  suffered  little  per- 
manent improvement,  for  in  156 1  the  Crown,  having  been  warned 
by  the  fiscal  of  the  Council  that  many  Portuguese  and  other 
foreigners  were  admitted,  appealed  to  the  Casa  again  for  informa- 
tion and  advice.^  In  spite  of  the  ordinances,  it  was  the  custom 
toward  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century  for  each  successful 
candidate  to  give  a  present  to  the  pilot  major  and  the  professor  of 
cosmography  of  two  or  three  ducats  "para  guantes  y  gallinas."  ^ 

Apparently  it  was  the  unsatisfactory  state  of  nautical  instruc- 
tion at  Seville  which  prompted  Prince  Philip  to  establish  a  special 
chair  in  cosmography.     Pedro  de  Medina,  in  dedicating  his 

1  Encinas,  i,  p.  459;  A.  de  I.,  146.  i.  9,  lib.  ii,  fol.  55. 

2  Hakluyt  (ed.  of  1904),  xi,  p.  451. 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  303 

Arte  de  navegar  to  Philip  in  1545,  had  justified  his  treatise  on 
the  ground  that  as  "  pocos  de  los  que  na vegan  saben  lo  que  a  la 
navegacion  se  requiere,  la  causa  es  porque  ni  hay  maestres  que  lo 
ensenen  ni  libros  en  que  lo  lean."  ^  And  Martin  Cortes  in  his 
Breve  compendio  de  la  esfera  y  de  la  arte  de  navegar,  printed 
six  years  later,  complains  that  "  pocos  6  ningunos  de  los  pilotos 
saben  apenas  leer,  y  con  dificultad  quieren  aprender  y  ser  ensena- 
dos."  2  From  now  on,  instead  of  private  teaching  by  the  pilot 
major  or  the  cosmographers  in  their  own  houses,  there  was  to  be  a 
regular  course  of  lectures  given  in  the  Casa  under  its  official  direc- 
tion.^ Thereafter  no  one  might  be  admitted  to  examination  unless 
he  had  attended  the  lectures  for  a  year,  or  at  least  had  covered  the 
greater  part  of  the  subjects  taught.  But  this  minimum  was  evi- 
dently found  too  extended  for  candidates  many  of  whom  were 
already  of  considerable  practical  experience.  Besides,  it  kept 
them  too  long  out  of  employment  on  the  sea.  At  any  rate  the 
strict  intentions  of  1552  were  soon  relaxed.  In  1555  the  term  of 
instruction  was  reduced  to  three  months,  and  in  1567  to  two 
months.  And  by  an  order  from  the  Council  in  1568,  the  two 
months  were  interpreted  to  include  all  holidays  falling  within 
that  period.^ 

The  course  prescribed  in  1552  may  bear  quotation  from  the 
original  cedula: 

.  .  .  lo  que  el  dicho  bachiller  Hieronymo  de  Chaves  ha  de  leer  en  la  dicha 
cathedra  .  .  .  es  los  siguiente. 

Primeramente  ha  de  leer  la  sphera:  ^  6  a  lo  menos  los  dos  libros  della 
primero  y  segundo. 

Ha  de  leer  assunismo,  el  regimiento  que  tracta  del  altura  del  Sol  y  como  se 

1  Fernandez  de  Navarrete,  Disertacion  sobre  la  historia  de  la  ndutica,  p.  156. 

*  Ihid.^  p.  164. 

'  In  1622  the  lectures  were  transferred  to  the  quarters  in  the  Merchants*  Ex- 
change occupied  by  the  Mariners'  Gild. 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  11,  par.  15.  In  the  sixteenth  century  there  were  two 
sessions,  morning  and  afternoon,  of  two  hours  each. 

^  Perhaps  the  De  Sphaera  Mundi  of  Joannes  de  Sacro  Bosco,  a  thirteenth  cen- 
tury professor  of  mathematics  at  Paris.  It  was  a  treatise  on  spherical  astronomy, 
based  upon  Ptolemy  and  the  Arab  commentators,  first  printed  in  Ferrara  in  1472, 
and  running  through  24  editions  before  1500.  It  continued  to  be  a  favorite  text 
book  in  Spain  for  the  teaching  of  astronomy  and  cosmography  tiU  the  middle  of 
the  seventeenth  century. 


304  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

sabra,  y  la  altura  del  Polo,  y  como  se  sabe:  y  todo  lo  demas  que  paresciere 
por  el  dicho  regimiento.i 

Ha  de  leer  assimismo  el  uso  de  la  carta,  y  como  se  tiene  de  echar  punto  en 
ella:  y  saber  siempre  el  verdadero  lugar  en  que  esta. 

Ha  de  leer  tambien  el  uso  de  los  instmmentos  y  la  fabrica  dellos,  porque  se 
conozca  en  viendo  un  instrumento  si  tiene  error. 

Los  instnimentos  son  los  siguientes. 
Aguja  de  marear 
Astrolabio 
Quadrante 
BallestiUa.2 
De  cada  uno  destos  ha  de  saber  la  theorica  y  pratica:  esto  es  la  fabrica  y 
uso  dellos. 

Ha  de  leer  assimismo  como  se  ban  de  marear  las  agujas,  para  que  sepan  en 
qualquiera  lugar  que  estuvieren,  quanto  es  lo  que  el  aguja  les  nordestea  o 
noruestea  en  el  tal  lugar:  porque  esta  es  una  de  las  cosas  mas  importantes 
que  ban  menester  saber,  por  las  equaciones  y  re(s)guardos  que  ban  de  dar 
quando  navegan. 

Ha  de  leer  assimismo,  el  uso  de  un  relox  general  diurno  y  noctumo,  porque 
les  sera  muy  importante  en  todo  el  discurso  de  la  navegacion. 

Ha  de  leer  assimismo,  para  que  sepan  de  memoria  6  por  escripto  en  qual- 
quiera dia  de  todo  el  ano,  quantos  son  de  luna:  para  saber  quando  y  a  que 
hora  les  sera  la  marea,  para  entrar  en  los  rios  y  barras,  y  otras  cosas  a  este 
mismo  tono  que  tocan  a  la  pratica  y  uso. 

In  fifty  years  the  science  of  navigation  was  still  scarcely  ad- 
vanced beyond  the  stage  reached  in  the  time  of  Columbus.  The 
elements  of  spherical  astronomy,  the  use  of  the  astrolabe,  quad- 
rant and  cross-staff,  some  knowledge  of  the  variations  of  the 
compass  and  a  fairly  good  table  of  the  sun's  decKnation,  a  sand- 
glass and  a  sundial,  and  perhaps  a  very  incorrect  chart  —  such 
was  the  professional  outfit  of  the  skilled  mariner  in  the  sixteenth 
century.  The  equipment  of  the  majority  of  pilots  was  doubtless 
much  slighter.  Nautical  science  seems  practically  to  have  sprung 
into  being  with  the  sudden  efflorescence  of  commercial  and  geo- 
graphical activity  among  the  Portuguese  in  the  fifteenth  century. 
Prince  Henry,  called  The  Navigator,  is  given  credit  for  having 

1  The  Regimiento  of  Pedro  de  Medina  ? 

'  The  astrolabe  was  employed  for  observing  the  meridian  altitude  of  the  sun  in 
determining  differences  of  latitude.  The  quadrant  and  ballestilla  (cross-staff  or 
Jacob's  staff)  were  used  for  nocturnal  observations,  to  secure  the  altitude  of  the 
p>olestar.  All  these  instruments  had  been  known  since  the  thirteenth  century,  but 
the  cross-staff  was  not  in  common  use  among  mariners  till  the  middle  of  the  six- 
teenth century.    Columbus  used  only  the  astrolabe  and  the  quadrant. 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  305 

brought  together  and  systematized  the  knowledge  then  obtain- 
able. John  II,  whose  reign  began  in  148 1,  followed  up  the  good 
work,  appointing  a  commission  in  1484  or  1485  which  calculated 
new  solar  tables,  simplified  the  astrolabe  for  use  by  mariners, 
and  laid  down  rules  for  determining  latitude  by  these  means 
from  the  meridian  altitude  of  the  sun.  But  there  matters  rested 
for  nearly  a  century,  till  astronomers  and  sailors  outside  the 
Iberian  peninsula  took  up  the  great  problems  associated  with 
the  progress  of  navigation.  Spanish  cosmographers,  some  con- 
nected with  the  India  House,  wrote  many  treatises  —  Pedro  de 
Medina,  Martin  Cortes,  Alonso  de  Chaves,  Rodrigo  Zamorano, 
etc.  —  but  the  first  two  at  least  still  used  the  astronomical 
system  of  Ptolemy;  and  although  Philip  III  in  1598  offered 
a  reward  of  one  thousand  crowns  for  the  discovery  of  a  method 
of  finding  longitude  at  sea,  that  problem  remained  a  mystery 
until  the  eighteenth  century.  Compasses  were  small,  of  the 
simplest  form  imaginable,  and  corrected  so  as  to  make  the 
terrestrial  pole  coincide  with  the  magnetic.  And  calculation  of 
latitude  by  means  of  the  astrolabe  on  the  unsteady  platform  of  a 
ship  was  so  imcertain  that  an  error  of  four  or  five  degrees  was  not 
unusual. 

The  offices  of  pilot  major  and  professor  of  cosmography  were 
filled  by  competition.  When  a  vacancy  occurred,  a  proclamation 
was  posted  by  order  of  the  Council,  in  Seville,  at  the  universities 
of  Salamanca,  Valladolid  and  Alcala,  and  also  in  the  Andalusian 
ports  of  Cadiz,  San  Lucar,  Santa  Maria,  and  Ayamonte,  where  it 
might  come  to  the  notice  of  practical  navigators  as  well.  But  it 
was  rare  that  mariners  were  found  who  combined  with  practical 
experience  the  theoretical  and  mathematical  knowledge  necessary 
for  these  posts.  The  competition  was  in  the  hands  of  the  president 
and  jueces  of  the  Casa,and  they  transmitted  a  report  to  the  Coun- 
cil, with  whom  in  consultation  with  the  king  lay  the  final  decision.^ 
The  same  formalities  were  observed  in  choosing  a  cosmograf o  f ab- 
ricador,  except  that  the  proclamations  were  posted  only  in  Seville 
and  at  the  court,  for  the  peculiar  skill  required  of  him  was  not 
taught  at  the  universities  or  acquired  by  familiarity  with  the  sea. 
1  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  11,  par.  8. 


3o6  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

From  the  beginning,  one  of  the  duties  of  the  pilot  major  and  his 
associates  was  to  set  down  on  maps  and  charts  the  results  of 
geographical  discovery  and  exploration  in  the  New  World;  both 
those  of  official  expeditions  organized  by  the  State,  and  those 
made  by  private  navigators  and  explorers,  who  on  their  return  to 
Seville  were  obhged  to  inform  the  Casa  of  their  newly-acquired 
maritime  knowledge.  The  pilot  major  had  also  to  enter  in  a  book 
a  list  and  description  of  the  islands,  shoals,  harbors,  etc.,  with 
their  position  and  distances,  based  upon  the  information  so 
obtained.  And  as  doubtless  many  mariners  in  the  seaports  of 
Andalusia  made  a  living  by  the  drawing  and  sale  of  nautical 
charts,  in  order  to  avoid  the  errors  arising  from  too  great  a  multi- 
plication of  such  maps,  Americo  Vespucci  was  instructed  to 
create  an  official  pattern  or  Padron  Real.  This  standard  map 
was  to  include  "all  the  lands  and  islands  of  the  Indies  till  now 
discovered  and  belonging  to  our  kingdoms  and  lordships,"  and 
no  pilots  were  permitted  to  employ  any  other  under  penalty  of 
fifty  doubloons.  A  later  cedula  provided  that  at  the  beginning 
of  each  year,  or  oftener  if  necessary,  a  conference  be  held  of  the 
pilot  major,  cosmographers,  and  others  skilled  in  cartography, 
to  discuss  new  geographical  data,  and  the  expediency  of  inserting 
them  in  the  Padron  Real.^ 

As  regards  the  elements  out  of  which  this  first  model  was  con- 
structed, they  were  without  doubt  borrowed  from  maps  then  cur- 
rent in  Spain,  and  not  the  result  of  any  special  surveys.  But  there 
were  also  configurations  furnished  by  the  royal  pilots  and  cos- 
mographers and  derived  from  their  own  stock  of  information, 
especially  if  these  men  were  of  foreign  experience,  like  Vespucci, 
Cabot,  Ribero,  and  others.^  In  any  case,  the  Padron  Real  did  not 
greatly  improve  matters.  The  knowledge  of  those  to  whom  it  was 
entrusted  was  at  best  scant  enough,  and  there  is  also  evidence 
that  they  were  negligent  in  their  duties.  Clandestine  charts, 
moreover,  probably  often  counterfeiting  the  Padron,  were  still 
made  and  sold  by  unauthorized  pilots,  which  introduced  new 

*  Viajes,  iii,  p.  300;  Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1552,  no.  126. 

The  requirement  to  keep  a  log  or  journal  to  be  delivered  to  the  ofl&cials  of  the 
Casa  seems  later  to  have  been  disregarded. 

*  Harrisse,  John  Cabot,  p.  73. 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  307 

sources  of  error  and  even  differences  in  graduation.  In  October, 
1526,  therefore,  Fernando  Columbus,  son  of  the  Discoverer,  in  the 
absence  of  Cabot  in  America  was  entrusted  with  the  construction 
of  a  new  map  for  the  Casa  de  Contratacion.  It  was  to  appear  in 
three  forms,  as  a  saihng  chart,  a  universal  geographical  map  or 
"  mapamundi,"  and  a  globe  or  "  sphera."  With  him  were  asso- 
ciated first  the  Portuguese,  Diego  Ribero,  and  later  Alonso  de 
Chaves;  and  he  was  instructed  to  secure  the  aid  and  advice  of  all 
those  versed  in  nautical  science  he  could  find.  Over  a  hundred,  it 
seems,  were  called  upon  to  contribute  to  the  undertaking.^ 
Alonso  de  Chaves,  however,  was  the  cartographer  who  really  did 
Fernando's  work.  In  spite  of  this  display  of  solicitude  by  the 
government,  for  nine  years  the  royal  order  remained  unfulfilled. 
At  last,  in  May,  1535,  the  Empress  Isabella,  then  governing 
Spain  in  the  absence  of  her  husband,  recalled  the  project  to 
Fernando's  attention,  and  bade  him  see  that  the  map  was  exe- 
cuted at  once.2  The  task  was  probably  completed  in  the  following 
year,  and  although  no  copy  of  the  new  Padron  has  come  down  to 
us,  it  is  identified  with  the  map  of  Alonso  de  Chaves,  of  1536, 
described  by  the  historian  Oviedo.^ 

In  July,  151 2,  Andres  de  San  Martin  and  Juan  Vespucci,  the 
latter  a  nephew  of  the  first  pilot  major,  and  both  recently  ap- 
pointed pilots  to  the  king,  were  conceded  the  privilege  of  taking 
copies  of  the  Padron  Real  and  selling  them  to  mariners  at  a  tariff 
fixed  by  the  Casa.^  And  after  their  time  the  concession  was 
doubtless  extended  to  others  in  the  same  position.  But  there  is  no 
evidence  that  the  Casa  had  a  monopoly  of  chart  or  instrument 
making,  although  the  pilot  major  was  accused  of  arbitrarily  refus- 
ing to  approve  maps  and  instruments  made  outside,  so  as  to 
compel  all  to  come  and  buy  there. ^  Certainly  when  the  general 
ordinances  of  1552  were  published,  no  restrictions  were  contem- 
plated. Indeed  by  this  time  the  pilot  major,  as  he  was  forbidden 
to  give  nautical  instruction,  was  also  debarred  from  selling  charts 
or  instruments  within  the  city  of  Seville,  whether  his  own  or  those 

1  Puente  y  Olea,  op.  cit.,  pp.  308  ff.;  Harrisse,  op.  cit.j  p.  74,  note  2. 

2  Colecc.  de  doc,  ist  ser.,  xxxii,  p.  512.  •  Lib.  xxi,  cap.  10. 
*  Puente  y  Olea,  op.  cit.,  p.  283. 

'  Harrisse,  Discovery  0}  North  America,  pp.  264  f. 


308  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

made  by  others,  under  penalty  of  paying  double  the  price  received. 
But  he  might  construct  them  for  himself  or  to  sell  outside  the 
city,  or  make  globes  and  other  objects  not  used  in  navigation.^ 
No  map  made  by  private  persons  might  be  sold  or  used  without 
first  being  brought  to  the  Casa  to  be  corrected  in  accord  with  the 
Padron,  and  no  instrument  without  being  authenticated  and 
receiving  the  stamp  of  official  approval;  the  dies  being  kept  in  a 
special  coffer  with  two  keys,  one  held  by  the  pilot  major  and  the 
other  by  one  of  the  cosmographers.  The  latter  met  once,  and 
later  twice,  a  week  to  attend  to  this  business,  and  after  1565  two 
other  pilots  were  chosen  each  year  by  the  president  and  jueces  to 
assist  them.  When  maps  or  instruments  constructed  by  the  cos- 
mographers themselves  were  presented  for  examination,  the 
makers  of  course  had  no  voice  in  the  decision.  If  an  astrolabe  or 
quadrant  was  rejected,  it  was  broken  up,  and  hopelessly  inaccur- 
ate maps  or  compass  cards  were  cut  in  pieces  and  retained  by  the 
Casa  to  prevent  their  being  used.^  Veitia  Linaje,  however,  says 
that  in  his  day  nautical  instruments  were  generally  manufactured 
by  the  cosmographo  fabricador,  and  the  chart  was  that  which 
had  been  standardized  and  printed  by  the  pilot  major,  Sebastian 
de  Ruesta.^  The  earHer  rule,  therefore,  respecting  the  sale  of  maps 
by  the  pilot  major  was  evidently  in  abeyance,  although  it  was 
reprinted  in  the  Recopilacion  of  1681. 

With  a  school  of  navigation  established  so  early  at  Seville,  one 
would  expect  from  the  Spaniards  a  considerable  contribution  in 
the  course  of  the  sixteenth  century  to  the  progress  of  nautical 
science.  Something  was  accomplished  in  a  practical  way.  The 
sheathing  of  vessels  with  lead  may  have  been  original  with  the 
Spaniards,  who  first  tried  it  out  in  15 14.  Diego  Ribero  is  said  to 
have  been  the  inventor  of  metal  pumps,  lighter  in  weight  and 
more  efficient  than  the  older  ones  of  wood.  In  1526  he  was 
promised  a  pension  of  60,000  maravedis  a  year,  in  addition  to  his 
salary  as  cosmographer,  as  soon  as  the  merits  of  his  invention 
were  substantiated,  with  the  exclusive  privilege  for  twelve  years 

1  Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1552,  no.  131. 

2  Ibid.,  no.  141;  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  11,  par.  19. 

3  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  11,  par.  20. 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  309 

of  furnishing  such  pumps  to  Spanish  ships.  The  invention  was  not 
finally  accepted  by  the  Casa  till  October,  1533,  just  after  Ribero's 
death.i  The  pumps  weighed  between  300  and  400  pounds  for  a 
vessel  of  100  to  120  tons,  but  owing  principally,  perhaps,  to  the 
cost,  they  did  not  supersede  those  of  wood  for  a  long  time.  Navar- 
rete  would  also  have  us  believe  that  a  primitive  steamboat  was 
invented  by  a  certain  Blasco  de  Garay  in  1543,  and  given  a  suc- 
cessful trial  at  Barcelona.^  However,  the  tale  of  what  was  actually 
accomplished  scarcely  rises  to  our  anticipations.  Spaniards  on  the 
other  hand,  as  already  intimated,  were  very  active  in  publishing 
treatises  and  compendiums  on  practical  navigation  which,  while 
useful  and  translated  into  foreign  tongues,  did  not  advance  the 
science  very  far  beyond  the  stage  arrived  at  by  the  Portuguese  at 
the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

Of  the  earliest  navigators  connected  with  the  Casa,  Juan  de  la 
Cosa,  surnamed  El  Vizcaino,  was  perhaps  the  most  distinguished. 
Sailing  in  1492  as  master  of  Columbus'  flagship,  of  which  he  was 
also  the  proprietor,  and  appointed  by  the  Discoverer  "  maestro 
de  hacer  cartas ''  for  the  second  voyage,  in  1500  he  was  the  author 
of  the  first  map  showing  the  coasts  of  America,  a  chart  doubtless 
made  on  his  return  from  the  voyage  of  1499-1500  as  pilot  of  the 
expedition  of  Ojeda.  And  as  his  name  appears  on  the  books  of  the 
treasurer  of  the  Casa  in  the  very  year  of  its  foundation,  before 
any  other  mariner  of  importance,  he  may  perhaps  be  considered 
its  first  cartographer.  Peter  Martyr,  one  of  the  most  trustworthy 
of  contemporary  witnesses,  says  that  the  navigators  of  the  day 
valued  his  maps  above  all  others.  He  accompanied  Ojeda  on  his 
second  expedition  to  Tierra  Firme  in  1509-10,  and  was  killed  by 
Indians  in  a  skirmish  on  the  seashore  near  Cartagena.^ 

Another  of  the  earhest  pilots  celebrated  for  his  skill  as  a  hy- 
drographer  was  Andres  de  Morales.  He  sailed  with  Columbus  on 
one  of  his  voyages,  probably  the  third,  was  pilot  for  Rodrigo 
de  Bastidas  in  1500-02,  accompanied  La  Cosa  in  1504-06,  and 
remained  for  a  number  of  years  a  resident  of  San  Domingo.  He 

*  Fernandez  de  Navarrete,  Disertacion  sobre  la  ndtUica,  pp.  360-365. 
'  Viajes,  i,  p.  cxxvii. 

'  Harrisse,  Discovery  of  North  America^  p.  711;  Fernandez  de  Navarrete,  Bib- 
lioteca  maritima,  ii,  p.  208. 


3IO  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

was  employed  by  Governor  Ovando  to  explore  and  map  the 
coasts  of  the  Antilles,  and  his  charts  at  the  time  Diaz  de  Solis  was 
pilot  major  seem  to  have  been  accepted  at  Seville  as  the  best  and 
most  accurate  then  obtainable.  Endowed  with  a  profound  gift  of 
observation,  he  was  the  first  to  deduce  the  theory  of  ocean  cur- 
rents in  the  Atlantic,  which  contributed  so  much  to  render  easy 
the  navigation  to  and  from  the  West  Indies.  According  to 
Harrisse,  in  November,  1515,  he  was  appointed  royal  pilot  to  the 
Casa.i 

The  first  modern  treatise  on  navigation,  and  the  first  geographi- 
cal description  of  the  New  World,  were  written  by  a  Spaniard, 
Martin  Fernandez  de  Enciso.  Enciso,  a  native  of  Seville,  was 
already  settled  in  San  Domingo  and  had  acquired  wealth  as  a 
lawyer  in  1509.  In  that  year  he  joined  fortunes  with  Alonso  de 
Ojeda,  bringing  succor  to  the  latter's  colony  in  Tierra  Firme,  of 
which  he  was  appointed  alcalde  mayor;  and  after  Ojeda's 
death,  he  was  distinguished  as  one  of  the  founders  of  La  Antigua 
del  Darien.  Deprived  of  his  authority  by  Balboa,  he  returned  to 
Spain  in  151 2  to  lay  complaint  before  the  king,  going  back  with 
Pedrarias  Davila  two  years  later  as  alguacil  mayor  of  the  colony. 
The  date  of  his  second  return  to  Europe  is  uncertain,  but  in  15 19 
he  published  in  Seville  his  Suma  de  geografia  dedicated  to  the 
new  sovereign,  Charles  V.^  Enciso's  object  in  writing  the  work 
was  to  give  pilots  and  other  mariners  sufficient  geographical  and 
astronomical  information  to  enable  them  to  continue  the  task  of 
discovery;  and  in  this  endeavor  he  was  the  first  to  gather  to- 
gether the  rules,  precepts  and  observations  which  became  the 
basis  of  all  other  works  of  that  nature  for  a  century  or  more. 

The  next  important  nautical  treatise  was  that  of  Pedro  de 
Medina,  one  of  the  examiners  connected  with  the  India  House. 
His  Arte  de  navegar,  published  at  Valladolid  in  1545,  with  the 
sanction  of  the  pilot  major  and  cosmpgraphers  of  the  Casa,  was  a 
methodical  compilation  of  the  principal  cosmographical  knowl- 
edge of  the  time  as  applied  to  practical  navigation.  It  was  trans- 

*  Puente  y  Olea,  op.  cit.,  pp.  280-282;  Fernandez  de  Navarrete,  Biblioteca 
maritima,  i,  p.  88. 

2  Nicolds  Antonio,  BiUiotheca  Hispana  Nova,  ii,  p.  loi.  Later  editions  appeared 
in  Seville  in  1530  and  1546. 


SHIPS  AND  NA  VIGA  TORS  3  1 1 

la  ted  into  Italian,  French,  Flemish,  and  English,  and,  though 
severely  criticized  by  foreign  writers  later  in  the  century,  ran 
through  many  editions  and  continued  to  be  used  as  a  textbook  in 
France  for  nearly  a  hundred  years.  To  facilitate  and  simplify  the 
instruction  of  pilots  at  Seville,  in  1552  he  published  a  compen- 
dium of  the  larger  work  under  the  title  Regimiento  de  navegaciorij 
and  in  1561  with  the  same  object  wrote  a  Suma  de  cosmograjia, 
which  still  remains  in  MS.^ 

English  mariners  preferred  to  Medina  the  Breve  compendio 
de  la  esfera  y  de  la  arte  de  navegar  of  Martin  Cortes,  which, 
though  written  contemporaneously,  was  not  printed  till  1 551,  at 
Seville.  It  was  translated  into  English  by  Richard  Eden,  at  the 
suggestion  of  Stephen  Borough  who  had  just  returned  from  Spain, 
and  was  published  in  London  at  the  expense  of  the  Merchant 
Adventurers  Trading  to  Russia,  in  1561.  Cortes'  work  was  in 
many  ways  superior  to  that  of  Medina,  not  only  in  clarity  and 
precision  of  exposition  and  arrangement,  but  also  in  depth  and 
originality  of  thought.  His  most  notable  contribution  was  that 
of  supposing  the  phenomenon  of  variation  in  the  mariners'  com- 
pass to  be  produced  by  a  magnetic  pole  distinct  from  the  terres- 
trial, an  idea  which  became  the  basis  for  the  investigations  of  a 
long  line  of  distinguished  mathematicians  and  observers  from  that 
day  to  this.  But  Cortes,  like  Medina,  still  followed  the  astronomi- 
cal system  of  Ptolemy,  although  Copernicus  had  been  dead  eight 
years. 

One  of  the  most  distinguished  cosmographers  of  the  India 
House,  though  less  widely  known  abroad  because  his  writings 
were  never  printed,  was  Alonso  de  Santa  Cruz.  We  first  hear  of 
him  as  royal  treasurer  of  the  expedition  of  Sebastian  Cabot  which 
sailed  ostensibly  for  the  Moluccas  in  1526.  In  1536  he  gained  his 
connection  with  the  Casa  de  Contratacion,  and  three  years  later 
was  lecturing  on  cosmography  and  astronomy  before  the  Emperor 
at  the  court.  In  1545  he  went  to  Lisbon,  to  study  the  charted 
water  routes  to  the  East  Indies,  and  to  learn  from  Portuguese 
pilots  the  variations  of  the  magnetic  needle  in  the  eastern  seas. 
Conscious  of  his  abilities  and  attainments,  and  of  the  scientific 
1  Fernandez  de  Navarrete,  Disertacidn,  pp.  156-162. 


312  TRADE  AND  NA  VIGA TION 

services  he  might  render,  he  urged  PhiKp  II  in  1557  to  make  him  a 
Councillor  of  the  Indies,  though,  it  may  be  added,  without  suc- 
cess. Later  however,  probably  in  1563,  he  was  appointed  cos- 
mographer  major  to  the  king.  He  dedicated  the  greater  part  bf 
his  Hfe  to  the  study  of  magnetic  variations,  and  to  the  contriving 
of  a  mode  of  finding  longitude.  He  was  the  first  in  Europe  to  con- 
ceive and  attempt  to  carry  out  the  idea  of  magnetic  ocean  charts, 
a  task  not  satisfactorily  achieved  till  a  century  and  a  half  later; 
and  he  also  in  a  measure  anticipated  the  solution  of  the  problem 
of  constructing  spherical  maps.  Indefatigable  in  his  scientific 
labors  until  his  death  in  1572,  he  was  remembered  as  the  greatest 
adept  in  the  theories  of  navigation  that  Spain  ever  had. 

A  notable  Spanish  work  of  the  later  sixteenth  century  is 
the  Itinerario  de  navegacion  of  Juan  de  Escalante  de  Mendoza, 
written  about  1575.  The  principal  object  of  Escalante  was  to 
explain  the  sailing  routes  between  Spain  and  the  ports  and 
islands  of  North  America,  with  a  description  of  the  latter,  and  of 
the  winds,  currents,  storms  and  other  ordinary  phenomena  of 
navigation.  But  in  the  course  of  his  work,  which  is  thrown  into 
the  form  of  a  dialogue,  he  manages  skillfully  to  introduce  a  great 
deal  of  information  respecting  the  construction,  manning,  pro- 
visioning, etc.,  of  ships,  the  conditions  of  naval  war,  and  much 
about  nautical  theory  and  practice.^  The  book,  therefore,  be- 
comes a  sort  of  encyclopedia  of  American  navigation,  the  simi 
of  the  maritime  knowledge  of  that  day,  and  of  considerable 
importance  for  naval  history.  Escalante  entered  very  early  upon 
a  seafaring  life,  under  the  patronage  of  an  uncle  who  was  a  ship 
captain  of  Seville.  At  eighteen  he  already  commanded  a  vessel 
of  his  own  in  the  Honduras  trade,  and  gained  a  reputation 
especially  for  his  skill  in  combating  pirates  in  the  West  Indian 
seas.  His  Itinerario,  although  representing  the  result  of  twenty- 
eight  years  of  experience,  receiving  the  encomiums  of  the  best 
cosmographers  and  mariners,  and  approved  and  commended 
by  the  Council  of  the  Indies,  was  forbidden  by  the  Council  to  be 
printed,  on  the  pretext  that  foreign  foes  might  thus  secure  pre- 

*  Fernandez  de  Navarrete,  Disertacidn,  p.  240.  The  Itinerario  has  been  printed 
by  Fernandez  Duro  in  Disquisiciones  nduticas,  vol.  v. 


SHIPS  AND  NA  VIGA  TORS  3 1 3 

cious  knowledge  of  Spanish  seas  and  sailing  routes.  A  petition 
to  be  reimbursed  for  the  10,000  ducats  he  had  spent  in  its  com- 
position was  also  denied,  and  not  till  forty-eight  years  later,  long 
affer  the  author  was  dead,  was  the  manuscript  finally  returned  to 
his  son  with  license  to  print,  although  pirated  and  erroneous 
copies  had  been  allowed  to  appear  in  the  meantime.  Escalante 
died  as  captain  general  of  the  Tierra  Firme  fleet  in  1596. 

A  Compendio  del  arte  de  navegar,  published  in  158 1  by  Rodrigo 
Zamorano,  professor  of  cosmography  in  the  Casa  and  later  its 
pilot  major  —  an  elementary  work  by  one  who,  although  trained 
as  a  mathematician,  had  no  experience  of  the  sea  —  because 
concisely  and  clearly  written  was  adopted  and  followed  for  many 
years  as  a  textbook  in  Spanish  schools.  But  a  truly  important 
work  was  the  Regimiento  de  navegacion  y  de  la  hidrografiaj 
published  by  Andres  Garcia  de  Cespedes,  cosmographer  major 
to  the  king,  in  1603.  Printed  by  royal  order,  it  was  a  register 
of  sorely  needed  reforms  in  Spanish  hydrography  and  instru- 
ment making  which  Cespedes  had  undertaken  in  conjunction 
with  the  best  pilots  of  Seville  in  1596.  His  treatise  marked  a 
considerable  advance  over  earlier  Spanish  productions  of  this 
character.  Its  author  was  well  abreast  of  the  scientific  knowledge 
of  his  day,  was  distinguished  as  a  mathematician  and  astronomer, 
and  also  contributed  to  the  development  of  artillery  and  hydrau- 
lics in  his  own  country.  This  Regimiento  definitely  super- 
seded among  intelligent  men  the  books  of  Medina  and  Cortes, 
and  fixed  for  the  rest  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  science  of 
navigation  in  Spain.^ 

At  the  same  time  among  Spanish  seamen  there  seems  to  have 
been  little  improvement  in  intelligence  or  skill.  Obsolete  authors 
were  still  expounded  in  the  schools,  and  as  late  as  1634  the  king 
ordered  the  cosmographer  major  to  lecture  at  Court  on  the  trea- 
tise of  Sacro  Bosco !  Abuses  in  the  examination  of  pilots  at  Seville 
continued.  A  short  course  of  two  months'  instruction  in  the  com- 
pendium of  Zamorano  was  not  calculated  to  turn  out  capable 
navigators,  and  the  pretext  of  a  scarcity  of  mariners  was  insuflS- 
cient  excuse  for  such  precipitation.  There  can  be  little  doubt  but 
^  Fernandez  de  Navarrete,  Disertacidn,  pp.  271-275. 


314  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

that  many  secured  certificates  from  the  pilot  major  with  no 
examination  at  all,  while  others  bought  them  in  the  open  market, 
substituting  their  own  names  for  those  originally  inserted.  Nau- 
tical instruments  too  were  carelessly  manufactured  by  unskillful 
workmen,  and  charts  remained  primitive  and  inexact,  because  of 
the  lack  of  intelligent  application  and  of  theoretical  knowledge 
in  those  charged  with  the  examination  and  correction  of  both. 
The  general  ignorance  and  inefficiency  of  Spanish  pilots,  there- 
fore, was  not  greatly  relieved.  They  displayed  a  repugnance  to 
new  ideas,  and  an  affection  for  traditional  and  faulty  methods, 
which  accounts  for  many  of  the  disasters  in  the  American  navi- 
gation in  that  era. 

On  each  of  the  India  fleets  there  was,  in  addition  to  pilots  for 
individual  ships,  a  pilot  major  for  the  entire  squadron.  The 
pilot  major  of  the  galleons,  or  more  correctly,  of  the  Armada 
de  la  Carrera  de  las  Indias,  was  held  to  be  of  superior  rank  and 
dignity  to  his  confrere  of  the  flotas,  and  seems  to  have  been 
always  an  appointee  of  the  Crown,  usually  for  life,  the  appropriate 
candidates  being  nominated  by  the  Casa  to  the  Council  of  the 
Indies.^  He  was  consulted  by  the  captain  general  regarding  the 
choice  of  pilots  for  the  almiranta  and  other  galleons,  and  on  all 
occasions  when  important  decisions  were  taken  respecting  the 
course  or  disposition  of  the  fleet.  The  pilots  major  of  the  flotas 
were  till  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  selected  by  the 
captain  general  for  each  voyage,  with  the  approval  of  the  Council; 
but  in  Veitia  Linaje's  time  their  position  in  point  of  dignity  and 
manner  of  appointment  was  assimilated  to  that  of  the  pilot  major 
of  the  galleons. 2 

As  for  the  commanders  of  individual  vessels  in  the  fleets,  they 
fell  into  two  classes,  pilots  and  masters.  Upon  the  pilot  alone 
devolved  the  navigation  of  the  ship,  from  the  moment  it  left  port 
until  it  arrived  at  its  destination,  and  through  the  "contremaestre  " 
or  mate  he  communicated  his  orders  to  the  crew.  In  port  his 
duties  were  ended. ^  But  the  head  of  the  ship  was  the  master,  the 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  12,  par.  i.  ^  Ihid.^  par.  4. 

*  There  were  local  pilots  to  guide  vessels  over  the  bar  at  San  Lucar,  and  into  the 
harbor  of  Cadiz,  their  examination  and  appointment  resting  with  the  municipal 
authorities  of  Seville  and  Cadiz  respectively. 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  315 

"  patronus  '^  of  the  Consulate  del  Mar  and  earlier  medieval 
maritime  law.  He  equipped  and  provisioned  it,  received  the  freight 
payments,  engaged  and  paid  the  pilot  and  crew,  in  short  was 
the  business  manager;  but  except  to  indicate  the  ship's  general 
course  and  direction,  he  was  not  supposed  to  interfere  with  its 
practical  navigation.  He  was  frequently  proprietor  or  part  pro- 
prietor of  the  vessel,  as  in  earlier  times  in  the  Mediterranean  he 
had  always  been.  In  any  case,  he  represented  the  partners  or 
associates  who  owned  it.  These  latter  might  themselves  be 
merchants,  or  engaged  solely  in  the  business  of  building  and 
running  ships  —  "  armadores,''  as  they  were  called  in  Spain. 
After  1534  masters  had  also  to  pass  an  examination,  not  only  in 
the  elements  of  navigation,  but  in  everything  pertaining  to  the 
governance  of  a  ship,  its  manning  and  accoutrement.^  But  by 
decrees  of  1582  and  1586  a  shipowner  who  was  his  own  master 
was  excused  from  the  examination,  and  later  any  master,  if  he 
carried  with  him  on  the  voyage  two  pilots,  in  case  one  was  in- 
capacitated by  illness  or  other  accident.  An  earUer  law,  of  July, 
1573,  on  the  other  hand,  declared  that  the  grade  of  pilot  included 
that  of  master;  consequently  any  one  who  possessed  a  pilot's 
certificate  might  exercise  a  master's  functions,  provided  he  had 
at  least  an  eighth  part  interest  in  the  vessel.^ 

The  commander  of  a  ship  in  the  armada  was  called  "  captain," 
as  his  duties  were  almost  exclusively  of  a  martial  sort,  to  have 
charge  of  the  soldiers  and  gunners,  and  direct  operations  in  case 
of  attack.  And  apparently  any  shipowner  might  obtain  from  the 
general  of  the  fleet  the  title  of  captain,  if  he  accompanied  his 
vessel  and  served  without  pay.  The  distinction  carried  with  it 
various  privileges,  among  others  immimity  from  imprisonment 
for  debt. 

According  to  the  ordinances  of  1552,  masters  had  to  furnish 
security  to  the  amoimt  of  10,000  ducats  silver,  that  they  would 
faithfully  observe  the  rules  and  instructions  given  them  by  the 
judges  of  the  Casa,  and  would  render  a  true  and  just  account 
of  all  merchandise,  coin,  buUion,  etc.,  received  in  the  ship,  in 

1  Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1552,  no.  145. 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  7,  par.  30;  cap.  8,  par.  8, 


3 1 6  TRADE  AND  NA  VIGA  TION 

case  of  default  they  or  their  sureties  being  responsible  for 
the  loss  involved.  1  They  were  also  bonded  for  various  other 
amounts,  added  from  time  to  time,  and  equalling  altogether 
8 ICO  ducats:  that  their  ships  would  be  ready  for  lading  on  the 
date  prescribed  (1564,  2000  ducats);  that  they  would  carry 
no  unlicensed  passengers  (1604,  1000  ducats);  that  they  would 
settle  their  accounts  with  shippers  or  consignees  within  four 
months  of  the  completion  of  the  contract  (1000  ducats),  and 
present  a  certificate  of  quittance  at  the  Casa  within  two  months 
more  (1604,  100  ducats);  and  that  they  would  not  call  at  any 
forbidden  port,  or  on  the  return  voyage  put  into  the  Bay  of  Cadiz 
(4000  ducats).  These  combined  were  called  the  securities  "  de 
penas  pecuniarias,"  and  to  them  was  added  a  general  clause 
holding  the  master  responsible  for  any  amount  in  a  suit  brought 
by  the  Casa  for  failure  to  meet  the  requirements  set  at  the  oiB&cial 
inspection  of  the  ship.^  Similar  sureties  were  apparently  de- 
manded by  the  oficiales  reales  in  colonial  ports  of  masters  sailing 
to  Spain. 

With  the  gradual  rise  of  prices  in  Spain  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, there  seems  to  have  been  little  corresponding  increase  in  the 
wages  paid  to  Spanish  seamen.  The  common  sailor  or  soldier  in 
1550  as  in  1500  was  paid  on  an  average  about  thirty  maravedis 
a  day,  or  something  over  two  ducats  a  month,  in  addition  to  food 
and  drink,  reckoned  at  twelve  maravedis,  or  a  ducat  a  month 
extra.  Judging  from  the  code  of  ordinances  issued  for  the  fleets 
in  1633,  in  the  seventeenth  century  seamen's  wages  had  risen 
considerably.  Each  mariner  in  the  armadas  was  to  receive  four 
escudos  four  reals  a  month,  or  about  fifty-one  maravedis  a 
day.  The  remuneration  of  captains  and  pilots  in  the  armadas 
shows  a  more  rapid  and  striking  increase.  At  the  opening  of  the 
sixteenth  century  pilots  received  from  1000  to  2000  maravedis  a 
month,  depending  on  the  size  of  the  ship.  Fifty  years  later  they 
wei^e  getting  from  1500  to  3750  maravedis  (four  to  ten  ducats), 
and  in  the  seventeenth  century  about  twenty  escudos  or  7000 
maravedis.   The  pilots  major  who  sailed  on  the  flagship,  being 

*  Ord.  of  the  Casa,  1552,  no.  160. 

2  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  8,  par.  10-12. 


SHIPS  AND  NA  VIGA  TORS  3 1 7 

the  oldest  and  most  experienced  of  their  profession,  often  com- 
manded from  50  to  100  per  cent  more.  Captains  of  large  vessels 
(300  to  400  tons)  paid  in  the  time  of  Columbus  at  the  rate  of 
30,000  maravedis  (80  ducats)  a  year,  received  from  50,000  to 
100,000  maravedis  (133  to  266  ducats)  in  1550,  and  from  126,000 
to  168,000  maravedis  (360  to  480  escudos)  in  1633.  Commanders 
of  smaller  ships  (100  tons  and  under)  were  paid  correspondingly 
less;  in  1500,  from  15,000  to  20,000  maravedis  a  year,  in  1633, 
about  65,000  maravedis.  The  aristocratic  generals  of  the  India 
fleets,  from  Blasco  Nunez  Vela  in  1537  to  the  close  of  the  reign  of 
Charles  V,  received  six  ducats  a  day,  or  at  the  rate  of  something 
over  2200  ducats  a  year.  In  the  time  of  Philip  II  they  frequently 
were  given  an  "  ayuda  de  costa  "  of  500  ducats  on  the  completion 
of  their  voyage.  In  the  seventeenth  century  they  were  paid 
4000  ducats,  and  the  almirantes  2000  ducats.^ 


1500 

ISSO 

xvii  Cent. 

Seamen .  .  . 

.  per  month 

2\  due. 

2\  due. 

4  esc.,  4  reals 

Pilots 

u         u 

2hs\      " 

4-10  « 

20  escudos 

Captains .  . 

.  per  year 

80      « 

133-266  " 

360^480       " 

Generals.  . 

u        u 

133      " 

2,200     " 

4,000  ducats 

Till  late  in  the  sixteenth  century  at  least,  crews  were  hired  on 
shares,  as  had  been  the  common  practice  in  Europe  throughout 
the  Middle  Ages.  Each  person  connected  with  the  vessel,  from  the 
owner  to  the  ship's  boy,  was  assigned  a  certain  proportion  of  the 
proceeds  of  the  freights  and  other  profits  of  the  voyage.  Each 
therefore  had  a  direct  interest  in  the  success  of  the  undertaking. 
In  Veitia  Linaje's  time  this  was  no  longer  the  custom,  the 
amount  of  wages,  as  in  modern  practice,  being  specifically  agreed 
upon  beforehand.  It  appears  that  under  the  earlier  system  the 
proprietor  and  the  crew  each  chose  a  representative,  these  two 
together  computed  the  gross  receipts,  and  after  deducting  certain 
general  liabilities  (including  2J  per  cent  called  "  quintaladas," 
distributed  in  special  rewards  to  mariners  who  had  performed 
unusual  services),  divided  the  net  proceeds  into  three  parts,  two 
going  to  the  owner  and  one  to  the  crew.  This  latter  portion  was 
divided  in  turn  into  so  many  shares,  each  able-bodied  seaman 

1  See  Appendix  X. 


3  1 8  TRADE  AND  NA  VIGA  TION 

receiving  one  share,  each  grumete  or  apprentice  two-thirds  of  a 
share,  and  each  ship's  boy  one-fourth.  Apparently  an  analogous 
system  was  still  in  vogue  on  Portuguese  vessels  in  the  sixteenth 
century.  There  the  unit  of  reckoning  was  again  the  common 
sailor.  Two  grumetes  were  equal  to  one  sailor,  and  three  boys 
to  one  grumete.  The  boatswain  and  quartermaster  were  each 
reckoned  as  one  and  one-half  sailors,  and  the  calker,  carpenter, 
steward,  barber-surgeon,  chaplain,  etc.,  as  two  sailors.^ 

This  practice  was  a  survival  of  the  primitive  maritime  partner- 
ships or  fellowships  which,  owing  to  the  expense  and  risks  of  ship- 
building and  seafaring  adventure,  had  been  the  rule  among  all 
early  maritime  peoples.  In  the  beginning  no  sharp  distinction 
had  existed  between  shipowner,  sailor,  and  merchant;  as  we  see 
in  the  eleventh  century  Laws  of  Amalfi,  where  all  on  the  vessel 
appear  as  partners  in  the  undertaking,  trade  either  on  their  own  or 
to  the  common  account,  and  have  an  active  voice  in  the  govern- 
ance of  the  ship.  With  the  development  of  a  money  economy,  the 
appearance  of  a  capitahstic  class,  and  the  increased  division  of 
labor,  the  sailors  became  hired  men,  the  merchant  and  the  "  arma- 
dor"  followed  two  distinct  caUings  and  there  appeared  the 
"  patronus,"  corresponding  to  the  Spanish  master  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  Community  of  interests  and  of  authority  in  large  meas- 
ure disappeared.  Yet  the  wages  of  the  sailor  continued  to  bear  a 
direct  relation  to  the  prosperity  or  failure  of  the  voyage,  it  is  pos- 
sible that  under  certain  circumstances  the  crew  had  to  be  taken 
into  consultation,  and  they  seem  to  have  retained  the  right  to 
carry  a  limited  quantity  of  goods  for  their  own  private  trade  and 
profit.  Indeed  as  late  as  1644,  seamen  and  soldiers  on  the  gal- 
leons were  conceded  the  privilege  of  embarking  free  of  duties  a 
certain  number  of  jars  of  wine  for  sale  in  the  colonies;  the  first 
pilot,  250  jars;  the  ensign,  200;  the  second  pilot  and  the  chief 
gunner,  150  each;  the  sergeant  and  the  storekeeper,  100  each; 
the  dispenser,  the  water  bailiff,  and  each  corporal,  50;  each  sailor 
34,  each  gunner  25,  and  each  grumete  lo.^ 

*  Whiteway,  Rise  of  the  Portuguese  Power  in  India,  p.  44. 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  12,  par.  20;  SchmoUer,  "  Die  Handelsgesellschaften 
des  Mittelalters  und  der  Renaissancezeit,"  in  Jahrbuch  fUr  Gesetzgebung  .  .  .  des 
Deutschen  Reiches,  2d  ser.,  jcvii,  i,  pp.  4-14. 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  319 

The  prudent  and  Catholic  Philip  11  in  1582  published  an  order 
that  no  mariner  or  soldier  should  receive  wages  or  rations  until 
he  showed  a  certificate  that  he  had  been  shriven  by  one  of  the 
numerous  friars  appointed  to  hang  about  San  Lucar  at  the  time 
the  fleets  were  preparing  to  sail.  But  this  was  a  precaution 
not  generally  enforced.^ 

One  of  the  ordinances  of  1552  forbade  masters  to  engage,  or  in 
any  manner  entice  away,  sailors  or  officers  who  had  already 
signed  for  another  vessel.  Mariners  who  "  jumped  '^  their  con- 
tracts were  punished  with  twenty  days  imprisonment  and  a  fine 
double  the  sum  of  their  wages  on  the  prospective  voyage;  offend- 
ing masters  were  mulcted  10,000  maravedis,  half  of  which  went  to 
the  plaintiff.  If  a  sailor  received  any  money  from  a  master  as  a 
retainer,  it  was  to  be  interpreted  as  a  contract.^ 

In  theory  seamen  at  the  end  of  the  voyage  could  not  claim  a 
settlement  of  their  pay  unless  they  remained  with  the  ship  until 
she  was  laid  up  in  her  mooring  berth.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  it 
was  so  difficult  to  keep  them  on  board  after  the  long  absence 
from  home,  that  they  were  generally  released  at  once,  with  a 
slight  reduction  from  their  wages  to  defray  the  cost  of  mooring 
and  unrigging  the  vessel. 

Among  the  medieval  gilds  in  Seville,  there  was  one  of  the 
owners  and  masters  of  Andalusian  ships,  called  the  gild  or  "  co- 
legio  "  of  the  Comitres,  among  whose  functions  was  that  of 
policing  the  river,  and  maintaining  order  among  the  shipping. 
There  was  also  a  gild  or  college  of  Biscayan  pilots  established  at 
Cadiz,  the  origin  of  which  was  declared  to  be  so  ancient  "  que  de 
tan  to  tiempo  aca  que  memoria  de  hombres  non  es  en  contrario,'* 
as  we  learn  from  a  royal  cedula  of  March,  1500,  confirming  its 
ordinances  and  privileges.  It  had  its  consul,  elected  each  year, 
and  a  private  jurisdiction  over  its  own  members  and  affairs.  Its 
pilots  conducted  to  the  north  of  Europe  the  carracks  and  galleys 
which  called  at  Cadiz  on  their  way  from  the  Levant.^  Doubtless 
in  imitation  of  these  organizations,  there  arose  in  the  middle  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  probably  after  the  accession  of  Philip  II, 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  2,  par.  49.  2  Q^r^^  of  the  Casa,  1552,  no.  147. 

'  Fernandez  de  Navarrete,  Disertacidn,  p.  357. 


320  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

2i  "  cofradia,"  brotherhood  or  gild,  of  shipowners,  masters  and 
pilots  engaged  in  the  India  navigation.  A  few  years  later  a 
hospital  was  founded  for  old  or  infirm  mariners,  and  the  constitu- 
tion and  ordinances  for  the  administration  of  the  two,  hospital 
and  cofradia,  received  the  king's  sanction  in  March,  1569.  The 
entire  foundation  was  named  the  Universidad  de  los  Mareantes 
de  Sevilla,  within  which  were  comprehended  not  only  ship- 
owners, masters  and  pilots,  but  also  quartermasters  or  mates, 
boatswains,  sailors  and  grumetes.  But  the  governing  body  was 
the  original  cofradia,  composed  only  of  those  first  mentioned,  who 
had  passed  the  Casa's  examinations. ^  The  eldest  son,  unless  he 
entered  the  Church,  inherited  the  right  of  admission  to  the 
fraternity  on  the  death  of  his  father. 

To  provide  funds  for  this  corporation,  a  sum  equal  to  the  fourth 
of  the  wages  of  an  able-bodied  seaman  was  withdrawn  from  the 
total  wages  and  profits  of  every  ship  sailing  between  Spain  and 
America,  even  if  the  master  or  owner  was  not  a  member  of  the 
cofradia.  If  we  may  judge  from  a  cedula  of  November,  1605,  by 
that  time  this  fourth  part  had  been  increased  to  a  half;  and 
finally  in  1608,  as  noted  in  an  earlier  chapter,  there  was  sub- 
stituted a  new  method  of  pa3Tnent,  in  the  form  of  a  tonnage  tax  of 
one  and  one-half  reals  on  every  ton  of  vessels  departing  for  the 
colonies  from  Seville,  Cadiz  or  the  Canary  Islands. ^  In  addition, 
each  pilot  on  returning  from  America  was  expected  to  contribute 
two  ducats,  and  on  every  ship  was  a  box  or  chest  to  receive  money 
for  the  Mariners'  Hospital.  These  resources  were  employed  not 
only  to  defray  administrative  expenses,  and  the  cost  of  festivals 
and  other  corporate  celebrations  such  as  were  common  to  all 
craft  gilds  in  those  days;  with  them  succor  was  extended  to 
mariners  robbed  by  corsairs,  ransoms  were  made  up  to  rescue 
others  from  captivity  in  Barbary,  poor  members  who  had  fallen 
into  the  debtors'  prison  were  assisted,  or  dowers  provided  for 
their  daughters. 

The  gild  elected  each  year,  usually  after  the  return  of  the  gal- 
leons and  flota,  three  officials,  a  mayordomo  and  two  diputados, 

1  A.  de  I.,  138.  3.  18;  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  7,  par.  2,  4,  5. 

2  Ihid.,  par.  7,  13,  16. 


SHIPS  AND  NAVIGATORS  3 21 

as  they  were  afterwards  called,  each  with  a  salary  of  12,000 
maravedis.  They  had  to  be  over  thirty  years  of  age,  were  not 
reeligible,  and  in  order  to  avoid  the  possible  absence  of  a  majority 
of  the  board  were  chosen  from  among  those  members  who  had 
retired  from  active  sea  life.  One  of  the  jueces  oficiales  presided  at 
the  elections,  and  each  year  had  to  visit  the  hospital  and  review 
the  financial  accounts.  As  the  ostensible  object  of  the  mariners 
in  organizing  the  gild  was  to  enable  them  to  communicate  to 
the  king  suggestions  for  the  improvement  of  the  India  navigation, 
and  needless  to  say  of  their  position  in  it,  they  were  allowed  to 
appoint  and  maintain  at  the  court  or  elsewhere  proctors  and 
solicitors  to  represent  their  interests,  or  send  their  own  members 
for  the  purpose.  Those  belonging  to  the  cofradia  were  the  recip- 
ients of  numerous  exemptions  and  privileges  in  the  course  of  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  some  of  which  have  already 
been  alluded  to.  Among  other  things,  they  were  excused  from  the 
quartering  of  soldiers  and  "  huespedes  "  in  their  houses,  from 
military  service  on  land,  from  mimicipal  office  unless  they  desired 
it,  and  from  the  payment  of  "  pechos,  pedidos  y  moneda  forera." 
They  were  permitted  to  carry  arms,  and  employment  on  the  sea 
was  declared  in  no  wise  to  prejudice  their  claims  to  "  hidalguia." 
Those  who  had  been  in  the  India  navigation  for  twenty  years 
continued  to  enjoy  these  privileges  in  their  retirement.^ 

The  Universidad  de  Mareantes  had  its  headquarters  across  the 
river  from  Seville  in  the  suburb  of  Triana,  where  lived  most  of  the 
seafaring  population.  Its  earliest  residence,  including  the  hos- 
pital and  a  chapel,  was  situated  on  the  river  bank  almost  opposite 
the  historic  Torre  del  Oro  and  the  quays  of  the  Casa  de  Contrata- 
ci6n.2  It  was  imder  the  peculiar  patronage  of  an  ancient  image  of 
the  Virgin  called  "  Nuestra  Senora  del  Buen  Aire,''  and  of  the 
saints  Andrew  and  Peter.  It  is  said  that  on  the  facade  of  the 
chapel  facing  the  river  was  a  high  balcony  with  an  altar,  which 
could  be  discerned  from  all  sections  of  the  port,  and  where  each 
morning,  as  the  altar  was  illumined  by  the  first  golden  rays  of  the 
sun,  the  sacrifice  of  the  Mass  was  celebrated  by  an  officiating 
priest. 

*  Veitia  Linaje,  lib.  ii,  cap.  7,  par.  29,  33.        *  Puente  y  Olea,  op.  at.,  p.  367. 


322  TRADE  AND  NAVIGATION 

The  project  of  a  college  or  asylum  at  Seville  for  the  orphan  sons 
of  Spanish  seamen  was  frequently  suggested,  first,  it  seems,  by  the 
Duke  of  Medina  Sidonia  in  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. In  1607  it  was  urged  by  the  Mariners'  Gild,  and  again  in 
1627.  Following  a  favorable  report  from  the  Casa,  a  decree  for  the 
foundation  of  the  institution  was  issued  in  1628.  And  to  provide 
funds,  the  king  shortly  after  granted  a  perpetual  "  licencia  de 
privilegio  "  to  send  a  ship  with  every  other  fleet  to  the  West 
Indies.  But  in  1638,  when  some  8000  ducats  had  been  collected, 
and  they  were  about  to  build  next  to  the  hospital,  the  Crown  took 
the  money  to  help  defray  the  expense  of  dispatching  the  galleons; 
and  in  1647  the  privilegio  was  permanently  transferred  to  the 
Consulado.  The  idea  apparently  remained  in  abeyance  till  1665, 
and  not  till  sixteen  years  later  was  the  College  of  Pilots  of  San 
Telmo  created  by  royal  decree,  but  at  the  charge  of  the  Mariners' 
Gild.  In  1734  a  splendid  edifice  was  erected  on  the  Seville  side  of 
the  river,  in  which  over  a  hundred  orphan  boys  received  a  home 
and  nautical  instruction.  This  building  in  the  nineteenth  century 
became  the  residence  of  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Montpensier, 
was  bequeathed  by  the  Duchess  to  the  archbishopric  of  Seville, 
and  is  to-day  a  seminary  for  priests.  But  over  the  high  altar  of  the 
chapel  of  this  palace  of  San  Telmo  still  presides  Nuestra  Senora 
del  Buen  Aire,  patroness  of  the  ancient  mariners  of  Seville. 


APPENDICES 


APPENDIX  I 

The  Casa  Lonja 

The  Casa  Lonja,  or  Exchange,  of  Seville,  in  which  is  located  to-day 
the  Archivo  de  Indias,  was  originally  the  headquarters  of  the  Con- 
sulado.  The  idea  of  erecting  such  a  building  first  appeared  in  the  time 
of  Philip  II.  In  the  autumn  of  1572  an  agreement  was  entered  into 
by  the  king  and  the  prior  and  consuls  of  Seville  for  the  construction 
of  an  edifice  where  merchants  could  congregate  to  negotiate  their 
affairs.  Till  then  they  had  been  accustomed  to  use  the  cathedral  for 
this  purpose,  to  the  scandal  of  the  community.  The  site  chosen  lay 
just  south  of  the  cathedral,  on  ground  occupied  by  the  smithy  of  the 
Alcazar,  part  of  the  Mint,  and  several  minor  streets  and  private  propn 
erties.  The  architect  eventually  selected  was  Juan  de  Herrera,  re- 
sponsible also  for  the  design  of  the  Escorial.  Philip  II  offered  to 
advance  5,000  ducats  to  begin  the  work. 

As  the  Consulado  was  empowered  to  levy  an  excise  to  defray  the  cost 
of  the  structure,  in  January,  1573,  i  per  cent  was  imposed  on  mer- 
chandise and  other  articles  entering  or  leaving  the  city  by  land  or 
water,  and  on  all  money  exchanges  at  the  fairs.  Royal  and  ecclesiasti- 
cal property,  plate  and  bullion  from  the  Indies,  and  the  produce  of 
farms  and  estates  of  Sevillan  citizens,  were  exempt.  Later  the  tax 
oscillated  between  ^  per  cent  and  §  per  cent,  and  it  remained  a  per- 
manent contribution  long  after  the  buUding  was  finished. 

It  seems,  however,  that  for  some  reason  or  other,  for  a  decade  at 
least  the  "  derecho  de  Lonja  "  was  not  collected,  nor  construction 
begun.  A  cedula  of  the  summer  of  1582  again  ordered  the  work  to  be 
undertaken.  Perhaps  part  of  the  difficulty  lay  in  the  importunities 
of  the  Crown  for  money.  In  1590  the  prior  and  consuls  lent  PhiHp 
50,000  ducats  out  of  the  receipts  from  this  and  other  tolls,  and  in  1592 
another  18,000.  In  1601  the  building  was  still  far  from  complete. 
Witnesses  testified  that  the  second  story  was  lacking,  and  the  struc- 
ture open  to  the  sky.  If  merchants  did  come  there  to  trade,  they  were 
driven  out  by  the  rains  in  winter,  and  in  sunmier  by  the  sun,  and  re- 
sorted again  to  the  neighboring  cathedral.  Even  after  the  Lonja  was 
finished,  in  1606,  it  was  difficult  to  compel  merchants  and  notaries  to 
leave  their  accustomed  places  for  the  new  Exchange. 

(A.  de  I.:  140.  3.  9,  ano  1614;  151.  2.  9,  anos  1591-1611.) 
32s 


326 


APPENDIX  II 


APPENDIX  II 


"LiBRO  DE  SiTUADOS,"  OR  SALARIES  AND  PENSIONS  PaID  OUT  OF  THE  FUNDS 
OF  THE   CaSA  DE  CONTRATAaON 


Office 

Remarks 

Year 

Salary 

President  of  the  Council 

of  the  Indies 

Count  of  Osomo 

IS35 

300,000  mrs. 

Admiral  of  Castile 

Fernando  Enriquez 

u 

270,000 

Simon  de  Alcazaba 

u 

100,000 

Fiscal  (of  the  Council  ?) . 



u 

100,000 

Juan  de  Tavera 

u 

75,000 

Secretary  to  H.  M.  for 

colonial  affairs 

Francisco  de  los  Cobos 

u 

50,000 

Rui  Falero 

a 

50,000 

Francisco  Falero 

u 

50,000 

Secretary  to  H.  M 

Juan  de  Samano 

u 

40,000 

Treasurer  of  the  Casa. . . 

(1504,100,000  mrs.) 

u 

120,000 

Comptroller  of  the  Casa 

u 

a 

120,000 

Factor  of  the  Casa 

u 

u 

120,000 

Pilot  major  of  the  Casa. . 

(1508,75,000  mrs.) 

u 

100,000 

Judge   of   the   Casa   at 

Cadiz 

u 

60,000 

Pilot  of  the  Casa 

(1512,20,000  mrs.) 

u 

30,000 

Cosmographer 

u 

30,000 

Visitador 

u 

12,000 

Porter 

(1511,5,000  mrs.) 

u 

10,000 

Counsellor 

(1518,3,000  mrs.) 

u 

6,000 

Relator 

1543 

30,000 

Assessor 

1543 

10,000 

Receptor  de  averfas 

(1552,75,000  mrs.) 

1568 

90,000 

Auditors  of  the  Tribunal 

de  la  Contaduria 

(paid  from  the  averia) 

17  cent. 

187,500 

Jueces  letrados 

(200,000  mrs.  from  the 

averia) 

(( 

300,000 

President  of  the  Casa . . . 

(paid  from  the  averia) 

« 

75o>ooo 

Sources:  A.  de  I.,  2.  3.  2/3;  2.  3.  6/7,  ramo  i;  40.  3.  i;  46. 1. 1/51,  no.  2;  139. 
I.  4,  lib.  I,  f.  144;  lib.  3.  f.  200;  139. 1.  5,  lib.  7,  f.  loi.   Viajes,  vol.  iii,  pp.  297,  298. 


APPENDIX  III 


327 


APPENDIX  III 

AverU  Collected  on  the  Cargoes  of  the  India  Fleets,  1537-61 


Receipts 

Expenditures 

Fleet  of 

On  Exports 

On  Imports 

Total 

Blasco  Nunez  Vela 

1537-38 

.... 

.... 

12,712,600 

Bartolom6  Carreno 

1552-53 

.... 

.... 

21,385,408 

21,296,610 

Juan  Tello  de  Guzman 

1553-54 

.... 

18,240,309 

.... 

.... 

Pedro     Men^ndez     de 

Avil6s  1555-56 

18,883,562 

12,830,741 

31,714,303 

37,613,525 

Pedro  de  las  Roelas 

1557-58 

17,483,0181 

I5,597»i36 

33,080,154 

30,639,576 

Pedro  de  las  Roeias 

1559-60 

1,274,408 

10,444,272 

11,718,680 

10,922,179 

Pedro     Men^ndez     de 

Avil6s  1560-61. .. . 

12,050,987 





I  Of  this  figure,  9,3x4,666  maravedis  represented  a  loan  from  bankers  in  advance  for  fitting  out 
the  fleet. 


328 


APPENDIX  III 


Rate  of  the  Averia  Paid 

ON  Articles  imported  from  trf.  Indies,  1557-64 

Repartimiento  dek  Averfa  cobrada 

Pedro  de  las 

Ibidem  (segunda 

Ibidem  (tercera  viaje) 

del  oro  y  plata  y  otras  cosas  que 

Roelas.  1557-58. 

viaje).    1559-60 

1563-64 

vinieron  en  la  flota  de: 

A. del., 36.  4.4/10 

A.  de  I.,  36.  4.  4/10 

A.  de  I.,  30.  3. 1 

Por  cada  peso  de  buen  oro, 

oro     4I  maravedis 

en  oro  6  en  plata 

17  maravedis 

10  maravedis 

plata  3f 

Por  cada  peso  de  tipuzque. 

loi 

6 

2i 

Por  cada  marco  de  plata 

que  no  venga  reducido  en 

• 

pesos  de  oro 

85 

so 

19 

Por  cada  marco  de  tejuelos 

d  75  mrs.  que  es  15  mrs. 

cada  peso 

IS 

8 

3 

Por  cada  marco  de  perlas 

comunes 

210 

ISO 
400 

70 
270 

Por  cada  marco  de  cademilla 

562^ 

Por  cada  marco  de  avemarias 

42ii 

Por  cada  marco  de  aljofar. . 

843 

560 



Por  cada  marco  de  topos .  . 

126 

80 

Por  cada  marco  de  bromas  y 

grangones 

64 

43 

.... 

Por  cada  arroba  de  grana. . 

600 

280 

90 

Por  cada  cuero  vacuno  (y 

que  los  cueros  de  tenera 

paquen   cada  dos  tanto 

como  uno) 

I3i 

10 

7 

Por  cada  caxa  de  azucar  . . 

487^ 

272 

ISO 

Por  cada  quintal  de  sebo  que 

estd  avaliado  d  5  pesos. . 

85 

.... 

.... 

Por  cada  quintal  de  sarsapa- 

rilla  que  esti  avaliado  d 

10  pesos 

170 

.... 

Por  cada  saca  de  lana,  i,  3 

pesos 

SI 

.... 

.... 

Por  cada  quintal  de  palo  de 

guayacan  que  estd  ava- 

liado i.  8  reales 

io| 





APPENDIX  IV 


329 


APPENDIX  IV 

Receipts  of  the  Treasurers  of  the  Casa  de  CoNTRAXAa^N,  1503-90 


Maravedis 

Guanines 

Year 

Pearls 

Brazil  wood  1 

From  the 

From  other 

(base  gold) 

Indies 

sources 

1503 

2.99S,2i7i 

1,002,800* 

1504 
1505 

18,756,736 
22,784,787 

432,624 
463.38s 

marcs   onz.   och.     torn. 

gr. 

cwt. 

lbs. 

marcs  onz.  och. 
13        X       4 

1506 

15.527,291 

4.989 

19        7        I          2 

9 

1,866 

78* 

1507 

21,204,675 

1.342 

1508 

I7,67i,68ii 

898.415* 

18        I        2          0 

0 

1509 

2S.958,53oi 

731 

10 

iSio-ii 

24,061,232^ 

pesos    tom.    gr. 

1511 

21,742,410 

584 

9.^ 

1,277       5        10 

IS" 

33.8oi,i75i 

211,277  maravedis  in  value 

1,193 

25 

1513 

33,706,806 

3  sacks 
marcs     onz.     och.    tom. 

gr. 

593 

88 

232      0         0 

IS14 

23.264,83s 

13          I         4         3 

6 

220 

0 

5,337       4          0 

ISIS 

26,928,06s 

12          6         1          0 

0 

23 

75 

ISI6 

13,148,222 

48          7         6         I 
and  s  "  bamiecos  " 

2 

638 

so 

IS17 

24,524.250 

16          4         5         3 
and  4  "  perlas  gruesas ' 

0 

1518 

45,852,352 

309          6         I          2 

6 

and  61s  "  perlas  escogidas  " 

I5I9 

24,178,692* 

34          0         0          0 

0 

1520 

13.151,781 

162           030 

0 

IS2I 

2,214,833* 

2,429 

so 

1S22 

8,333,516 

330 


APPENDIX  IV 


Year 

Maravedis 

Pearls,  etc. 

GuaSines,  gold  dust,  etc. 

1526 

15,330,147 

marcs 

onz.     och.     torn.     gr. 

marcs     onz.     och.     torn.     gr. 

IS27 

2S,723,i9oi 

)    18s 
and 

13546 

1528 
iS2«^3o 

38,693,961* 
48,521,305 

380  pearls  unweighed 

(gold  dust) 
and  45  pesos,  guanines 

1530 

13,940.630* 

' 

IS3I 

25,818,771 

marcs     onz.     och.     torn.     gr. 

1532 
IS33 

16,106,109 
31,658,681 

marcs 

onz.     och.     torn.     gr. 

132          5          3          20 
(gold  dust) 

IS34 
1535 

28,782,325* 
119,283,851 

and 

4         5           20 
[,969  pearls  imweighed 

99,832  pesos,  I  torn.,  6  gr. 
(guanines) 

1536 

39,689,245* 

8,081  marcs,  7  och.  (base  silver) 

1537 

321,915,017 

J 

1538-39 

371,223,461 

1539 

85,392,082 

502  cmcrslds 

1540 

76,160,626 

1541 

19,673,537 

1542 

16,192,989 

1543 

215,680,975 

1544 

54.756,205 

IS4S 

122,830,523 

1546 

60,693,821 

1547 

7.330,388 

1548 

40,797,420 

1549 

55,846,613 

IS50 

62,259,077 

Year 

Maravedis 

Year 

Maravedis 

Year 

Maravedis 

1551 

847,485,902 

1565 

163,348,000 

1578 

789,621,000 

1552 

116,784,094 

1566 

100,584,000 

1579 

494,739,000 

1553 

250,197,059 

1567 

433,836,700 

1580 

646,692,000 

1554 

522,426,218 

1568 

473,322,000 

1581 

600,460,000 

1555 

479,661,402 

1569 

398,294,700 

1582 

622,974,500 

1556 

278,379,998 

1570 

381,729,000 

1583 

957.143,000 

1557 

722,427,066 

1571 

374,067,500 

1584 

458,290,000 

1557-59 

1,390,611,253 

1572 

257,662,000 

1585 

820,313,000 

1560 

268,000,000 

1573 

268,886,000 

1586 

239,190,000 

1561 

291,524,000 

1574 

322,634,700 

1587 

1,774,276,000 

1562 

103,331,000 

1575 

292,885,500 

1588 

990,090,000 

1563 

201,391,500 

1576 

142,000,000 

1589 

731,332,000 

1564 

103,841,500 

1577 

395,501,000 

1590 

591,430,000 

Figures  for  1503-14  were  obtained  from  A.  de  I.,  39.  2.  1/8. 
•  "  "39.  2.  2/9. 


1515-22 
1526-29 
1530-37 
1538-40 
1541-46 
1547-52 
1553-57 
1557-59 


2.  3-  1/2. 

2.  3.  2/3,  and  39-  3-  3/i. 

2.  3-  4/5. 

2.  3.  6/7. 

2.  3.  7/8. 

2.  3-  9/10. 

2.  3.    16/17. 


Figures  for  1560-90  were  obtained  from  a  Mufioz  MS.  in  the  Rich  Collection,  vol.  iv,  New  York  Public 
Library. 


APPENDIX  IV  331 

Receipts  for  1508  close  Dec.  10;  those  for  1509  begin  Dec.  11, 1508. 

In  the  annual  statements  of  the  treasurer,  the  distinction  between  receipts  from  the  Indies  and  from 

other  sources  is  not  continued  after  1508.    Among  the  former  are  included  the  fare  of  passengers 

and  freight  receipts  from  vessels  belonging  to  the  Crown;  also  remittances  to  cover  the  value  of 

Spanish  coin  sent  to  Hispaniola  for  use  in  the  new  colony. 
Receipts  for  15 10  close  March  31, 1511;  those  for  1511  begin  AprU  1. 
Treasurer's  accounts  for  the  years  1523-1525  are  missing. 
Receipts  for  1526  begin  with  July. 

Receipts  for  1529  close  August  11, 1530;  those  for  1530  begin  August  12. 
The  large  receipts  for  1535  were  due  in  part  to  the  gold  and  silver  brought  from  Peru  by  Hernando 

Pizarro  in  Feb.,  1534,  but  not  charged  to  the  treasurer  till  Jan.-Feb.,  1535.    This  amounted  to: 
gold:  49,897i224  maravedis; 
silver:  5,378,221^  maravedis. 

The  receipts  also  included  22,500,000  maravedis  sequestered  from  the  bullion  arriving  from  America 

on  the  account  of  private  individuals. 

The  large  receipts  for  1537  were  due  to  the  sequestration  by  the  Crown  of  800,000  ducats  which  arrived 
on  four  vessels  from  Tierra  Firme  (Peru)  in  1535,  but  which  were  not  charged  to  the  treasurer  till 
July,  1537.    The  actual  proceeds  were  apparently  293,161,373  maravedis. 

The  receipts  also  include  4,500,000  maravedis  advanced  by  bankers  on  royal  treasure  expected  from 
America. 

In  addition  to  the  figures  given  in  this  table,  there  were  charged  to  the  treasurer  by  his  auditors  for 
the  years  1530-37,  53,334i574  maravedis,  received  from  Francisco  de  Alcaz3.ba,  "  tesorero  de  la 
casa  de  moneda  de  Su  Magestad,"  from  Juan  Suarez  de  Carvajal  of  the  Council  of  the  Indies,  from 
Juan  de  Enciso,  Diego  de  Ayala  and  others,  on  various  accounts,  some  of  it  apparently  money 
sequestered  by  the  king. 

Receipts  for  1538  nm  over  into  April,  1539.  They  include  the  treasure  brought  back  on  the  aimada 
of  Blasco  Nufiez  Vela,  as  follows: 

on  the  king's  account:  279,926,184  maravedis; 
sequestered:  86,984,777  maravedis. 
The  receipts  also  include  4,312,500  maravedis  borrowed  from  bankers. 

Receipts  for  1539  include  2,063,000  maravedis  advanced  by  bankers,  and  8,140,000  maravedis  from 
the  royal  treasury. 

Receipts  for  1543  include  the  treasure  brought  from  the  Indies  in  the  fleet  of  Martin  Alonso  de  los 
Rios. 

The  large  receipts  for  1545  were  due  in  part  to  the  seizure  of  180,000  ducats  in  India  goods  and  bul- 
lion from  a  fleet  of  9  vessels  which  arrived  from  New  Spain  in  Nov.,  1544. 

Receipts  for  1546  include  1,875,000  maravedis  advanced  by  bankers. 

•  •    1547       •       3,000,000         «  «  « 

•  «    1548       •       1,321,500 

■        *    1550       •       9.375,000         «  «  « 

*  *   1 55 1      *      the  treasure  brought  back  on  the  fleets  of  Pedro  de  la  Gasca  (arrived  Sept., 
1550)  and  Sancho  de  Biedma  (arrived  July,  1551): 

Gasca:  567,372,527  maravedis; 
Biedma:  149,024,324  maravedis. 

Other  noteworthy  remittances  in  this  year  were: 

From  Mexico:  42,186,665  maravedis; 
From  Peru:  78,255,937  maravedis; 
From  Honduras:  8,706,557  maravedis. 
Receipts  for  1552  include  5,250,000  maravedis  advanced  by  bankers. 

*  *    1553       "       1,087,500         «  «  « 

No  comments  are  offered  for  the  years  following  1560  because  of  lack  of  opportunity  to  examine  the 
accounts  in  detaiL 


332 


APPENDIX  V 


APPENDIX  V 

Remittances  of  Bullion  from  New  Spain,  1522-1601 

"  Relacion  de  la  Plata  Reales  oro  Joias  que  se  allevado  a  su  magestad  desta  nueva  espafia  a  los 
Reinos  de  Castilla  desde  el  ano  de  mil  y  quinientos  y  veinty  dos  que  fue  rrecien  descubierta  y  ganada 
esta  tierra  hasta  el  ano  presente  de  mil  y  quinientos  y  noventa  y  nueve  ques  quando  este  memorial  se 
haze,"  etc.    Brit.  Mus.,  Add.  Mss.  13,964,  f.  196. 


Year 

Pesos   Tom.  Gr. 

Year 

Pesos   Tom.  Gr. 

1522 

52,709   4   9 

1558 

313,543 

I   0 

1523 

no  se  Uevo  nada 

1559 

no  se  llevo  nada 

1524 

99,264   5   8 

1560 

268,702 

5   2 

1525 

30,886   0   0 

1561 

252,937 

4   2 

ore  en  oja 

1,838   2   0 

1562 

284,857 

5   0 

oro  en  joyas 

1,592   0   0 

1563 

315,218 

I   2 

oro  sin  ley 

1,145   2   0 

1564 

333,209 

7   I 

1526 

20,387   I   I 

1565 

424,409 

0   I 

oro  sin  ley 

5,542   0   0 

1566 

480,597 

4   3 

1527 

47,505   6   7 

1567 

517,394 

4   I 

oro  sm  ley 

16,049   4   0 

1568 

931,463 

2   0 

oro  en  joyas 

1,130   0   0 

1569 

338,737 

4  II 

1528 

33,015   3   6 

1570 

811,484 

2   0 

oro  sin  ley 

16,558   0   0 

1571 

704,383 

4  10 

1529 

no  se  Uevo  nada 

1572 

684,052 

0  10 

1530 

20,142   4   6 

1573 

690,076 

5   5 

1531 

24,971   4   I 

1574 

685,629 

^   ^ 

1532 

40,927   7   I 

1575 

641,276 

4   8 

1533 

40,272   5   6 

1576 

934,391 

4  II 

1534 

104,440   2   9 

1577 

1,111,202 

5   9 

*   1535 

16,250   0   0 

1578 

937,002 

3  10 

1536 

32,500   0   0 

1579 

835,304 

7   0 

1537 

33,108   6   6 

1580 

734,285 

2  II 

1538 

no  se  llevo  nada 

1581 

521,883 

4   8 

1539 

65,407   7   0 

1582 

582,293 

4   7 

1540 

132,996   I   0 

1583 

775,483 

7   I 

1541 

16,599   3   0 

1584 

835,720 

6   4 

1542 

113,240   3   0 

1585 

880,474 

7   7 

1543 

50,524   4   0 

1586 

1,114,588 

2   7 

1544 

164,136   3   5 

1587 

1,852,078 

2   8 

1545 

26,483   4   7 

1588 

1,042,000 

0   0 

1546 

no  se  llevo  nada 

1589 

791,797 

5   0 

1547 

20,497   6   9 

1590 

1,038,675 

4   9 

1548 

115,996   9   0 

1591 

1,043,377 

2   5 

1549 

no  se  llevo  nada 

1592 

784,000 

0   0 

1550 

236,344   3   4 

1593 

no  se  llevo  nada 

1551 

61,635   3   I 

1594 

1,136,114 

5   9 

plata  baxa 

1,253  marcos 

1595 

945,712 

I   8 

1552 

no  se  llevo  nada 

1596 

899,386 

0   4 

1553 

165,039   0   0 

1597 

1,311,053 

7   3 

1554 

165,636   0  10 

1598 

1,100,000 

0   0 

1555 

207,118   4   2 

1599 

1,474,406 

0   0 

1556 

433,914   2   7 

— 

— 

plata  baxa 

1,113  marc,  4  onz. 

1600 

1,500,000 

0   0 

1557 

167,078   2   3 

1 601 

1,527,000 

0   0 

The  figures  for  the  years  1541-50  have  been  taken  from  the  Ternaux-Compans  table  printed  by 
Soetbeer.  The  copyist  of  the  Bntish  Museum  manuscript  evidently  substituted  in  these  years  figiures 
belonging  to  the  following  decades. 

The  figures  for  1600  and  1601  were  added  in  a  later  hand. 


APPENDIX  VI 


333 


APPENDIX  VI 


Royal  "  quinto  "  of  the  Silver  extracted  from  Potosi,  1556-1640 

"  RazoQ  que  halla  Juan  de  Echavarria,  official  mayor  de  la  real  contaduria  y  caza  desta  vilb 
imperial  de  Potossi,  de  la  plata  que  se  a  presentado  &  quintar  en  ella  y  derechos  que  se  an  cobrado 
para  Su  Magestad  desde  4  de  Febrero  de  1556,  que  ay  libros  y  quenta  dello  en  la  dicha  contraduria, 
hasta  fin  del  pasado  de  1640."    Brit.  Mus.,  Add.  Mss.  13,976,  f .  405. 

{"  derecho  de  ensayador,  fundidor  y  marcador  "  .  i  % 
"  quinto  "  (one-fifth  of  the  remainder) 19  i% 
total 20  1% 

By  a  royal  c^dula  of  July  8,  1578,  the  "derecho  de  ensayador"  etc.  was  raised 
to  ii%,  the  quinto  being  levied  as  usual  on  the  remainder,  making  a  total  of 
2ii%. 

The  figures  for  1585  are  partly  under  the  old  system,  partly  under  the  new,  the 
c^dula  apparently  being  first  sent  to  New  Spain  and  later  extended  to  Peru. 


Year 

Amount  of  silver  registered 

Royalties 

1556 

i,339»975  pesos 

I  torn. 

4gr. 

278,714  pesos 

6  tom. 

8gr. 

IS57 

1,392,893 

I 

I 

289,721 

7 

2 

1558 

1,150,597 

I 

4 

239,324 

I 

9 

1559 

1,120,865 

5 

7 

233,140 

0 

7 

1560 

1,136,911 

4 

0 

236,477 

4 

9 

1561 

1,205,963 

3 

7 

250,840 

3 

7 

1562 

1,268,769 

0 

0 

263,903 

7 

8 

1563 

1,337,689 

2 

8 

278,239 

3 

0 

1564 

1,177,727 

2 

9 

244,967 

2 

4 

1565 

1,545,727 

6 

6 

321,511 

3 

0 

1566 

1,444,858 

7 

8 

300,530 

5 

4 

1567 

1,240,005 

7 

9 

257,921 

2 

4 

1568 

1,183,340 

4 

I 

246,342 

6 

10 

1569 

1,129,414 

6 

5 

234,918 

2 

3 

1570 

967,572 

3 

7 

201,255 

0 

7 

1571 

791,380 

3 

2 

164,607 

10 

1572 

643,678 

4 

8 

133,885 

3 

1573 

698,393 

6 

5 

145,265 

2 

1574 

932,824 

I 

10 

194,027 

4 

IS7S 

1,229,245 

5 

8 

255,683 

0 

1576 

1,618,889 

2 

6 

336,766 

10 

1577 

1,128,837 

4 

6 

242,798 

9 

1578 

2,454,122 

0 

0 

510,457 

3 

0 

334 


APPENDIX  VI 


Year 

Amount  of  silver  registered 

Royalties 

1579 

3i243>479  pesos 

3  torn. 

Sgr. 

674,643  pesos  5  torn. 

10  gr. 

1580 

3»535,7o6 

2 

0 

735,426 

7 

3 

1581 

3,795,980 

I 

6 

789,563 

7 

0 

1582 

4,051,596 

6 

0 

842,732 

I 

0 

1583 

3,631,150 

7 

8 

755,279 

3 

3 

1584 

3,613,699 

3 

9 

751,649 

3 

II 

1585 

4,472,646 

I 

2 

943,89s 

0 

0 

1586 

4,355,960 

2 

II 

900,920 

7 

4 

1587 

3,576,929 

7 

8 

758,309 

I 

3 

1588 

4,204,997 

2 

10 

891,459 

3 

6 

1589 

4,575,915 

0 

9 

970,094 

0 

0 

1590 

4,149,342 

4 

7 

879,660 

5 

0 

1591 

4,557,533 

I 

4 

966,197 

0 

3 

1592 

4,603,991 

6 

0 

976,046 

2 

0 

1593 

4,636,695 

6 

0 

982,979 

4 

0 

1594 

4,093,675 

7 

2 

867,859 

2 

4 

IS95 

4,542,073 

2 

S 

962,919 

4 

4 

1596 

4,282,366 

4 

10 

907,861 

5 

10 

IS97 

3,955,022 

4 

4 

836,464 

6 

3 

1598 

3,823,642 

4 

0 

810,612 

I 

9 

1599 

3,886,847 

I 

9 

824,011 

4 

II 

1600 

3,788,981 

4 

5 

803,264 

0 

9 

1601 

4,309,513 

6 

7 

913,616 

7 

6 

1602 

4,431,03s 

4 

II 

939,379 

4 

5 

1603 

4,315,39s 

4 

9 

914,863 

6 

II 

1604 

3,868,327 

2 

10 

820,085 

3 

2 

1605 

4,470,394 

3 

8 

947,723 

5 

0 

1606 

4,185,526 

6 

4 

887,331 

5 

6 

1607 

4,126,253 

I 

8 

874,765 

5 

6 

1608 

3,501,562 

0 

7 

742,331 

I 

4 

1609 

3,303,780 

4 

I 

700,401 

3 

9 

1610 

3,324,329 

2 

8 

704,757 

6 

7 

1611 

3,789,050 

4 

2 

803,278 

5 

7 

1612 

3,878,448 

I 

4 

822,231 

0 

I 

1613 

3,502,901 

2 

2 

742,615 

0 

7 

1614 

3,703,41s 

6 

9 

785,124 

I 

4 

161S 

3,950,523 

6 

7 

837,511 

0 

S 

1616 

3,668,140 

0 

I 

777,64s 

6 

4 

1617 

3,126,591 

7 

0 

662,837 

3 

0 

1618 

3,095,475 

I 

0 

656,240 

5 

10 

1619 

3,233,96s 

I 

10 

685,600 

5 

I 

1620 

3,119,786 

0 

10 

661,394 

6 

3 

1621 

3,206,254 

0 

0 

679,725 

6 

10 

1622 

3,188,629 

0 

0 

675,989 

2 

10 

APPENDIX  VI 


335 


Year 

Amount  of  silver  registered 

Rcyalties 

1623 

3,160,745  pesos 

5  torn. 

8gr. 

670,078  pesos    0  torn. 

9gr. 

1624 

3,194,978 

2 

9 

672,307 

7 

7 

1625 

2,989,100 

3 

5 

633,689 

2 

4 

1626 

3,oi5,j68 

7 

10 

639,300 

5 

0 

1627 

3,145,209 

6 

8 

666,784 

3 

10 

1628 

3,419,494 

7 

5 

724,932 

7 

5 

1629 

2,839,464 

5 

0 

601,542 

4 

0 

1630 

2,806,673 

5 

0 

595,014 

6 

8 

1631 

3,112,210 

0 

0 

639,788 

5 

2 

1632 

2,812,858 

0 

6 

596,325 

7 

4 

1633 

2,944,397 

4 

0 

620,800 

3 

9 

1634 

608,344 

2 

2 

^^2>S 

2,765,314 

2 

0 

585,449 

0 

9 

1636 

4,155,708 

6 

7 

881,010 

2 

2 

1637 

3,493,056 

4 

0 

740,527 

7 

10 

1638 

3,425,448 

7 

8 

726,195 

I 

6 

1639 

3,292,281 

6 

8 

697,963 

6 

0 

1640 

2,854,020 

7 

7 

605,052 

3 

6 

Totals! 

256,114,187 

I 

6 

54,056,108 

7 

I 

Totals  in 

pesos  of 

8  reals . . 

400,178417 

3 

8 

84462,670 

I 

0 

^  The  totals  are  slightly  inacoirate,  but  are  the  figures  given  in  the  manuscript. 


336 


APPENDIX  VII 


APPENDIX  VII 


Value  in  Maravbdis  of  the  Royal  Treasuee  on  the  Peincipal  Fleets 
Returning  from  the  Indies  between  1538  and  1556 


Fleet  of 

Blasco  Nufiez  Vela, 
1538 

Martin  Alonso  de  los 
Rios,  1543 

Pedro  de  la  Gasca, 
1550 

Gold 

Silver 

Gold 

Silver 

Gold 

Silver 

New  Spain 

90,709,562 
4,782,541  i 
5,542,010 

29,865,023 
8,476,669 

58,852 

125,345,027 

13,085,297 

25,282,272 
41,962,771 

4,9SO 

93,570,946 
50,260,330 

Peru 

Tierra  Finnc 

Honduras     . . 

New  Granada 

West  Indian  Islands. 
Pearls 

Miscellaneous 

Private    bullion    se- 
questered for  the 
king's  use 

1,983,202 
87,284,888 

375,000 

Totals 

366,909,  i85i 
maravedis 

214,910,377 
maravedis 

567.372,527 
maravedis 

Fleet  of 

Sancho  de  Biedma, 
1551 

Francisco  de  Mendoza, 
1552 

Bartolom6  Carreno, 
ISS3 

Gold 

Silver 

Gold 

SUver 

Gold 

Silver 

New  Spain 

7,390,409 
46,494,256 
4,71 
5.683,312 

28,932,955 
54,344,316 
9,168 

1,460,108 

22,246,912 
6,155,050 

209,722,152 
1,778,909 

54.819,877 
16 

133,613,952 
97,301,289 

Peru 

Tierra  Firme 

New  Granada 

West  Indian  Islands. 
Pearls 

249,000 

Private    bullion   se- 
questered for  the 
king's  use 

Totals 

149,024,324 
maravedis 

239,903,023 
maravedis 

511,002,864 
maravedis 

APPENDIX  VII 


337 


Value  in  Maravedis  op  the  Royal  Treasure  on  the  Principal  Fleets 
Returning  from  the  Indies  between  1538  and  1556 


Fleet  of 

Cosme  Rodriguez  Farfan,  1555 

Diego  Felipe,  1555 

Gold 

Silver 

Gold 

SUver 

New  SDa,in           

11,308,943 
7,250,964         67,532,892 

"7>S9i 

92,884,737 
39,065,511 

98,85 
86,06 

44,060.001 

Peru 

Tierra  Firme          

Honduras 

New  Granada 

West  Indian  Islands .  . . 

Pearls 

Miscellaneous 

Private  bullion  sequest- 
ered for  the  king's  use 

4,426 
8,172 

Totals 

218,160,638 
maravedis 

229,031,689 
maravedis 

Fleet  of 


Alvar  Sanchez  de  Aviles,  1556 


Gold 


Silver 


Pedro  Men^ndez  de  Avil6s,  1556 


Gold 


Silver 


New  Spain 

Peru 

Tierra  Firme 

Honduras 

New  Granada 

West  Indian  Islands .  . . 

Pearls 

Miscellaneous 

Private  bullion  sequest- 
ered for  the  king's  use 

Totals 


132,428,423 


83,018,815 

960,480 

3,104,428 

27,212,242 


644,839 
3,913,896 


4,118,646 
6,594,619 
1,242,075 


4,343,228 


600,146,021 


867,727,712  maravedis 


Fleet  of  Blasco  Nufiez  Vela,  1538. 

Figures  obtained  from  A.  de  I.,  2.  3.  4/5. 

"  Miscellaneous  "  includes  a  gold  nugget  weighing  over  28  marcs,  and  valued  at  611,501  maravedis. 
Fleet  of  Martin  Alonso  de  los  Rios,  1543. 

Figiu-es  obtained  from  A.  de  I.,  2.  3.  6/7. 
Fleet  of  Pedro  de  la  Gasca,  1550. 

Figures  obtained  from  A.  de  I.,  2.  3.  7/8. 

The  source  of  the  bullion  was  unspecified  in  the  accounts.   The  fleet  consisted  of  seven  vessels  from 

Nombre  de  Dios,  and  practically  all  the  treasure  must  have  come  from  Peru. 


338 


APPENDIX  VII 


Fleet  of  Sancho  de  Biedma,  1551. 

Figures  obtained  from  A.  de  I.,  2.  3.  7/8. 

Most  of  the  gold  and  silver  from  Peru  had  originally  been  shipped  with  Pedro  de  la  Gasca  in  1550. 

The  vessel  was  cast  away  25  leagues  from  Nombre  de  Dios,  but  the  treasure  was  salved  and  re- 
shipped  with  Biedma. 

One  of  Biedma's  vessels  was  lost  on  the  homeward  voyage  by  fire,  and  none  of  the  treasure  saved. 
Fleet  of  Francisco  de  Mendoza,  1552. 

Figures  obtained  from  A.  de  I.,  2.  3.  9/10. 
Fleet  of  Bartolome  Carreno,  1553- 

Figures  obtained  from  A.  de  I.,  2.  3.  9/10. 
Fleet  of  Cosme  Rodriguez  Farfan,  iS55. 

Figures  obtained  from  A.  de  I.,  2.  3.  9/10,  and  39.  3.  s/z- 

"  Miscellaneous  "  comprised  the  gold,  silver  and  pearls  recovered  from  a  ship  of  Farfan's    fleet 

which  was  lost  on  the  coast  of  Zahara.    Some  of  the  treasure  belonged  to  private  individuals,  but 

being  unidentified  was  taken  by  the  Crown. 
Fleet  of  Diego  Felipe,  1555. 

Figures  obtained  from  A.  de  I.,  2.  3.  9/10. 

"  Miscellaneous  "  represents  part  of  the  bullion  saved  from  the  wreck  of  a  fleet  of  three  vessels  on 

the  Florida  coast  in  the  previous  year.    There  were  recovered  64,914  marcs  of  silver  and  3S.o6i 

pesos  of  gold,  altogether  about  153  million  maravedis. 
Fleet  of  Alvar  Sanchez  de  Avil6s,  1556. 

Figures  obtained  from  A.  de  I.,  2.  3.  9/10. 
Fleet  of  Pedro  Men6ndez  de  Avil^s,  1556. 

Figures  obtained  from  same  source  as  above. 


APPENDIX  VIII 


339 


APPENDIX  VIII 

Registered  Vessels  Sailing  to  and  from  the  Indies,  1504-55 


Year 

Outgoing 

Returning 

Year 

Outgoing 

Returning 

1504 

3 

1530 

79 

33 

(from  Aug.  14) 

1531 

54 

33 

1506 

22 

12 

1532 

45 

39 

1507 

32 

19 

1533 

60 

37 

1508 

46 

21 

1534 

86 

35 

1509 

21 

26 

1535 

81 

47 

I5IO 

17 

10 

1536 

84 

67 

I5II 

21 

13 

1537 

42 

28 

I5I2 

33 

21 

1538 

63 

41 

I5I3 

31 

30 

1539 

69 

47 

I5I4 

30 

46 

1540 

79 

47 

I5I5 

33 

30 

1541 

71 

68 

I5I6 

42 

10 

1542 

86 

64 

I5I7 

63 

31 

1543 

72 

56 

I5I8 

51 

47 

1544 

22 

54 

I5I9 

51 

41 

1545 

97 

38 

1520 

71 

37 

1546 

79 

65 

I52I 

33 

31 

1547 

83 

75 

1522 

18 

25 

1548 

89 

73 

1523 

41 

13 

1549 

loi  and  (2) 

73  and  (2) 

1524 

60 

10 

1550 

85  "  (2) 

72  "  (7) 

1525 

73 

37 

1551 

78 

84  "  (4) 

1526 

59 

37 

1552 

72 

53  "  (8) 

1527 

68 

41 

1553 

47 

32  "  (7) 

1528 

55 

17 

1554 

3 

24  "  (11) 

1529 

62 

42 

1555 

65 

44  "  (15) 

340 


APPENDIX  VIII 


Registered  Vessels  Sailing  to  and  from  the  Indies 
Outgoing  vessels,  1548-55 


^ 

r? 

^ 

ol 

1 

1 

V 

1 

> 

1 

1 

at 

0 

3 

c4 

a 

1 

V 

.8 

2 

3 

1 

P3 

1 

0 

1 

1548 

21 

50 

4 

I 

10 

2 

.  . 

I 

.  , 

1549 

25 

48 

I  and  (2) 

3 

16 

I 

I 

2 

4 

1550 

21 

2>Z 

6 

I 

16  and  (i) 

I 

I 

3  and  (i) 

3 

I55I 

22 

30 

9 

I 

10 

I 

I 

4 

1552 

19 

33 

2 

I 

13 

2 

I 

I 

1553 

9 

25 

5 

I 

4 

I 

I 

I 

1554 

I 

2 

1555 

20 

2>7 

2 

5 

I 

Totals 

138 

258 

29  and  (2) 

8 

74  and  (i) 

6 

2 

3 

12  and  (i) 

I 

I 

3 

5 

The  figures  in  these  tables  were  secured  from  a  volume  in  the  Archive  de  Indias  (30.  2.  1/3)  entitled: 
"  Libro  de  registros  de  las  naos  que  han  ido  y  venido  &  las  Indias  desde  el  ano  de  1504  en  adelante." 
It  seems  to  be  a  sort  of  index  or  calendar  of  the  registers  which  passed  through  the  Casa  de  Con- 
tratacion.    Whether  the  list  is  complete  or  not  there  is  no  means  of  knowing. 

The  figures  in  parenthesis  represent  vessels  wrecked,  abandoned  at  sea  or  in  some  port  before  reaching 
their  destination,  or  captured  by  corsairs.  They  probably  include  only  those  whose  registers  were 
saved  and  returned  to  Seville,  and  are  noted  in  the  "  Libro  de  registros  "  only  for  the  later  years. 


APPENDIX  VIII 


341 


Unspecified 

;     ;     :   CO  M     ;     ; 

1 

Jamaica 

!     '.     .    ^     .   ^     '.   *^ 

CO 

Puerto  Rico 

13 

S 
8> 

La  Yaguana 

•*'-'!'-'!!!    ^ 

0 

Santiago  de 
Cuba 

]          [       M       M          1          1          ]          [ 

^ 

Havana 

CO        ;       XO      (V5     CS     '§       M       M 

M 

i 

M 

Monte  Cristi 

MM                 M          ■ 

3 

CO 

Puerto  de  Plata 

4 

6 

I  and  (2) 

2 
I  and  (i) 
I  and  (i) 

4 

1 

c^ 

M 

San  Domingo 

M       M       CS                '7^  'm" 

«3     cJ     cij           rt     c<j 
ro   t>»    "<i-          10  0 

<S       CS       M                  MM 

M 

i 

On 
vo 

Cape  de  la  Vela 

1     ]   M     *     1     1     ■.     ; 

M 

Cartagena 

!   »-'   ^     !   H     ;     ;     ; 

-* 

Honduras 

M       M 
CO      M 

T3 
cs 

Tierra  Firme 

00           vo    vO     P<     t^ 

M                  M 

M 

New  Spain 

'w'  'Th'  "^  'oT  'hT       '10 

03     rt     rt     e^     rt           «J 

00    00      «N    00      •Tj-             10 

CO 

OOOnOm<ncotj-io 

X0101010»OIOU010 

1 

342 


APPENDIX  IX 


a 


•Si" 

"o  oTi-i 

cj  a  « 


•2       "5 


23 


i3      :i2 

xt        -a 


^   «t  ;s  «s   s 


rt  ^  r*-  VO  C< 


I 

in 

1 


a     fl 


^  w  s.       X        •< 

tn 
M   O  00   N  vO  O 

H     >  M 


a      as 


a'^    a^ 


rt  »0  M    CO  «   W   C< 


:a  :a 

:  a  :  ft 


CO 

•5 

o 

a 

1 

s,»» 


ducats  per  month 
ducats  per  month 

•5 

i 
1 

tn 

0) 


ii 


o    •  o 


0-5  3  2  i  ^ 


a  :i 

'■■I 


•5    S 

i  ;i 

^     •  en 


S       -S  Q       rS 


Q    U    «J 


^Sc3 


o  « 


•42 


13 


P  <u  — 


tn 

^  P 

a  ^  « 

O  ei   e« 


APPENDIX  IX 


343 


Schedule  of  Monthly  Wages  on  a  Galleon  of  500  Tons  in  the 
Armada  Real  —  XVII  Century  ? 

From  a  "  Di^ogo  an6iumo  entre  un  vizcatno  y  un  montafies  sobre  construccida  de  naves,"  printed 
by  Fernandez  Duro  in  Disquisiciones  Nduticas,  vol.  vi,  pp.  156-157. 


Gente 

de 
guerra 


Gente 

de 

mar 


Capitdn 

Alf  6rez 

Sargento 

Cabos  de  esquadra  (5) 

Tambores  (2) 

Pffaro 

Abanderado 

Mosqueteros  (40) 

Arcabuceros  (54) .... 

Maestre  de  nao 

Maestre  de  jarcia.  .  . 
Maestre  de  raciones  . 

Piloto    

Contramaestre  


Escudos 
40 

IS 
II 

8 

6 

6 

4 

6 

4 
25 
20 
20 
20 
15 


Gente 

de 

mar 


Capelldn 

Guardidn 

Cirujano 

Condestable 

Artilleros  (28) 

Trompeta 

Dispensero 

Alguacil  de  agua .... 
Escribano  de  raciones 

Carpinteros  (2) 

Marineros  (36) 

Grumetes  (15) 

Pajes  (8) 


Escudos 
12 
II 

8 

8 

6 

6 

6 

6 

6 

6 

4 

3 

2 


344  APPENDIX  X 


APPENDIX  X 

Ordinances  of  the  Consulado  of  Seville  Relating  to 
Marine  Insurance 

Otro  si,  por  quanto  vna  las  cosas  mas  necessarias  para  el  trato  de 
la  mercaduria,  y  para  la  conseruacion  della  es  la  antigua  costumbre, 
que  en  todos  cabos  se  guarda,  de  assegurarse  vnos  mercaderes  a  otros 
las  mercaderias  que  cargan,  y  los  nauios  en  que  las  lleuan:  lo  qual  si 
cessasse  diminuyrian  mucho  los  tratos:  porque  no  auiendo  assegura- 
dores,  no  auria  quien  osasse  cargar  y  osasse  auenturar  a  perder  todo  lo 
que  cargasse.  Y  por  esto  conuiene  que  aya  muchos  asseguradores,  que 
asseguren  d  otros  lo  que  cargare.  Y  que  entre  los  cargadores  y  asse- 
guradores aya  mucha  verdad  y  Uaneza,  y  que  no  cesse  de  auer  los 
dichos  asseguradores  como  de  presente  ha  commenjado  a  cessar.  Y 
que  los  asseguradores  esten  verdaderamente  seguros:  y  que  los  asse- 
guradores no  reciban  engaiio  en  pagar  lo  que  no  deurian  pagar,  por  los 
enganos  q  se  suelen  hazer,  y  en  el  viaje  delas  Indias  lo  suele  auer  muy 
mayores,  por  ser  nauegacio  mas  apartada  destos  reynos.  Y  por  euitar 
en  alguna  manera  parte  de  estos  dichos  negocios,  y  por  dar  ocasion  d  q 
aya  personas  q  asseguren  d  otros  las  haziedas  que  cargaren,  para  que 
el  trato  y  commercio  se  estienda  mas:  de  hazer  las  ordenangas  sigui- 
entes. 

Que  todas  las  personas  que  firmaren  riesgos  de  yda  6  venida  de 
Indias,  que  pusieren  en  el  renglon  que  firman  por  fulano,  6  por  comis- 
sion,  6  por  comissiones:  que  primero  que  firmen  ninguna  poli^a, 
muestren  los  poderes  que  tuuieren  ante  el  prior  y  consules:  los  quales 
los  examinen  si  son  bastantes:  y  siendolo  le  den  licecia  que  firme  por 
ellos :  y  no  lo  siendo,  que  no  pueda  firmar  el  q  tuuiere  los  dichos  poderes 
por  nadie,  sin  estar  aprouado  por  el  dicho  prior  y  consules :  so  pena  que 
cada  vez  que  firmare  tenga  veynte  mil  marauedis  de  pena,  la  mitad 
para  la  camara,  y  la  mitad  para  costas  del  consulado.  Y  si  los  poderes 
fueren  bastantes  y  dieren  la  dicha  licencia,  que  de  vn  traslado  de  todos 
ellos  ante  vn  escriuano  de  la  casa. 

Que  por  quanto  muchas  polif as  de  seguros  se  pierden,  de  lo  qual 
las  partes  reciben  daiio  por  no  auer  registros.  Ordenamos  que  de  aqui 
adelante  los  corredores  que  hizieren  las  tales  poligas,  las  hagan  conf orme 
i.  las  ordenan^as,  y  tengan  libro  en  que  assienten  la  poliga  que  hizieren 
dende  el  principio  hasta  el  fin  de  ella  con  el  dia  y  mes  y  aiio  en  que  se 


APPENDIX  X  345 

firmare  cada  firma:  y  quien  la  firmo,  y  que  catidad:  y  qu6  precio: 
sopena,  que  el  que  lo  contrario  hiziere  pague  de  pena  veynte  mil 
marauedis:  la  tercia  parte  para  la  camara  de  su  Magestad,  y  tercia 
para  gastos  del  consulado,  y  tercia  para  el  denunciador:  y  quede 
priuado  de  su  officio:  esto  demas  del  interesse  de  la  parte. 

Y  porque  muchos  asseguradores  se  mueren,  6  se  van  6  ausentan,  y 
para  cobrarse  los  daiios  y  auerias  que  ay  en  las  polif  as  que  han  firmado, 
es  menester  reconoscer  las  firmas.  Ordenamos,  que  de  aqui  adelante 
estando  la  poli?a  firmada  del  corredor  que  la  hizo,  y  dando  en  ella  fe 
como  la  vido  firmar  d  las  personas  en  ella  contenidas:  y  estando  es- 
cripta  en  su  libro:  sea  visto  las  tales  firmas  estar  reconoscidas,  para 
poderse  executar,  6  embargar  los  que  las  firmare:  como  si  estuuiessen 
reconoscidas  por  ellos:  y  ansi  sirua  para  los  muertos  y  ausentes,  sola- 
mente  para  el  dicho  effecto  de  execucion,  6  embargo:  sin  que  por  esto 
quede  reconoscida  para  el  negocio  principal. 

Que  nlgun  corredor  pueda  firmar  riesgos  por  si  ni  por  otra  persona: 
sopena  de  perdimiento  de  su  officio.  Y  q  ninguna  persona  pueda  firmar 
riesgos  por  ningu  corredor,  sopena  de  treynta  mil  marauedis  cada  vez 
que  los  firmare:  tercia  parte  para  la  camara  de  su  Magestad,  tercia 
parte  para  los  ga^stos  del  consulado,  tercia  parte  para  el  denunciador. 

Que  ninguna  persona  pueda  assegurar  de  yda  ni  venida  a  las  Indias 
sobre  los  fletes  ni  artillerias,  ni  aparejos  de  ninguna  nao,  sopena  que 
que  el  seguro  de  lo  que  sobre  ello  se  hiziere  sea  ninguno:  y  que  el 
assegurador  no  sea  obligado  d  pagarlo  aunque  se  pierda:  agora  sea  en 
poli^a,  agora  en  confian^a.  Pero  permitese,  que  se  pueda  assegurar 
las  dos  tercias  partes  de  qualquier  nao,  6  nauio:  y  caxco  del  solamente, 
conforme  a  la  ordenan^a  de  yda  a  las  Indias:  lo  que  verdaderamente 
valiere  y  no  mas.  Y  este  seguro  se  haga  en  poli^a  a  parte,  y  no  junta- 
mente  con  mercadurias.  Y  si  de  venida  se  quisieren  assegurar,  puedan 
assegurar  lo  que  tuuieren  de  licencia  del  dicho  prior  y  consules.  Y  si 
algun  maestre,  6  senor  de  nauio  tomare  dineros  a  cambio,  6  hiziere 
escriptura  de  deudo  que  deua,  que  el  acreedor  corra  el  riesgo  sobre  el 
tal  caxco  y  aparejos,  y  fletes,  q  tanto  menos  se  assegure  el  maestre,  6 
senor  del  nauio,  del  valor  del  caxco. 

Otro  si,  por  quanto  quando  algu  seguro  se  haze,  despues  de  perdida 
de  alguna  nao,  siempre  se  tiene  por  cierto  que  el  que  se  asseguro  sabia 
la  perdida  quando  se  hizo  assegurar.  Porende  ordenamos,  que  si 
algunos  se  asseguraren  despues  de  la  perdida  de  la  nao  6  naos,  6  la 
perdida  vuiere  sido  en  lugar  que  a  legua  por  hora  por  tierra  lo  pudiera 
saber  el  assegurado:  que  en  tal  caso,  que  el  seguro  sea  ninguno,  y  los 


346  APPENDIX  X 

asseguradores  no  scan  obligados  a  pagar  la  perdida:  solamente  buelvan 
el  premio  que  recibieren,  deteniendo  el  medio  por  ciento.  Y  si  el 
seguro  fuere  en  qualquier,  q  no  sean  obligados  a  correrlo  en  otra  nao. 

Que  quando  alguna  nao  de  yda  6  de  venida  a  Indias,  no  se  supiere 
della  despues  de  partida  del  puerto  de  donde  saliere  y  tomo  carga,  en 
vn  ano  y  medio  dende  el  dia  que  se  partio:  que  esta  nao  sea  tenida  y 
tengan  por  perdida:  y  se  pueda  cobrar  el  riesgo  de  ella,  haziendo 
dexacion  en  los  asseguradores,  y  dando  los  recaudos  necessarios. 

Que  quando  alguna  mercaduria  de  yda  6  de  venida  se  assegurare, 
tassandola,  por  pacto  espresso  en  algun  precio  senalado,  sea  y  se 
entienda  entrar  en  aquel  precio  el  coste  principal,  y  el  seguro  y  todas 
las  costas. 

Que  quando  algun  riesgo  vuiere  sobre  qualquier  cosa  que  se  aya 
echado  a  la  mar  por  beneficio  de  todos:  6  si  se  descargare  de  la  nao 
para  poder  passar  algunos  baxos  deste  rio,  6  de  otra  qualquier  parte, 
y  en  esto  vuiere  algun  riesgo,  sea  y  se  entienda  que  es  aueria  gruessa, 
y  que  lo  ban  de  pagar  la  nao  y  el  flete  y  todas  las  mercaderias  que  Ueua 
detro:  con  tan  to  que  no  aya  side  la  ocasion  forjosa,  y  no  tenga  en 
ello  culpa  el  maestre. 

Que  qualquiera  persona  que  por  si,  6  por  otra  persona  se  assegurare 
de  yda  6  de  venida  a  Indias,  sea  obligado  de  pagar  el  premio  del  tal 
seguro  detro  de  tres  meses  despues  que  se  firmare  de  contado,  6  en 
bianco,  sin  que  se  le  pida:  y  sino  le  fagare  dentro  de  los  tres  meses 
como  dicho  es,  si  algun  riesgo  vuiere  despues,  el  assegurador  no  sea 
obligado  a  pagarlo:  y  en  los  dichos  tres  meses,  y  despues  el  dicho 
assegurador  pueda  pedir  el  premio  al  assegurado,  y  sea  obligado  a 
luego  pagarselo. 

Y  si  alguna  persona  se  vuiere  assegurado  de  aqui  a  las  Indias,  y  por 
alguna  causa  no  cargasse  la  cargazon,  y  parte  della  en  la  nao  que  es- 
tuuiere  assegurado:  que  para  que  le  restituyan  lo  que  vuiere  dado  del 
premio  del  seguro,  sea  obligado  a  pedirlo  y  hazerlo  saber  al  assegura- 
dor, 6  asseguradores,  quinze  dias  despues  de  salida  la  nao  de  San 
Lucar.  Y  si  ansi  no  lo  hiziere,  despues  no  lo  pueda  pedir,  y  pierda  el 
premio  que  vuiere  dado. 

Que  en  qualquier  manera  que  se  deshaga  qualquier  poli^a  de  yda  6 
venida  a  Indias,  por  no  correr  el  riesgo:  el  assegurado  pague  medio  por 
ciento  al  assegurador  de  todo  lo  que  se  deshiziere. 

Que  todo  lo  que  se  cargare  en  este  rio  de  Guadalquiuir  para  Sanlucar 
de  Barrameda,  y  alii  sea  y  se  entienda  que  se  carga  en  esta  ciudad  de 
Seuilla,  aunque  la  poli^a  no  lo  declare,  y  lo  que  fuere  en  barcos  para 


APPENDIX  X  347 

lleuarlo  d  las  naos,  ansi  mismo  lo  han  de  correr  los  asseguradores, 
aunque  en  la  polifa  no  lo  diga. 

Que  todas  las  poligas  que  se  hizieren  de  yda  a  las  Indias,  si  se  asse- 
gurare  mds  summa  de  lo  que  vale  la  cargazo,  los  asseguradores  postre- 
ros  vayan  fuera:  no  ganando  ni  perdiendo,  sino  su  medio  por  ciento 
del  deshazerse.  Y  los  demas  asseguradores  corran  la  carga  con  todos 
sueldo  d  libra:  y  entiedese  ser  los  postreros  asseguradores,  los  postre- 
ros  firmados  en  la  polija,  aunq  aya  otros  aquel  mesmo  dia. 

Y  entiendese,  que  en  todas  las  mercaderias,  oro,  y  plata,  y  otras 
cosas  que  se  registraren  en  el  registro  del  rey,  d  la  yda  en  esta 
ciudad  de  Seuilla,  y  en  otras  partes  donde  se  cargaren  las  naos;  y  d 
la  venida,  en  qualquiera  parte  de  las  Indias  donde  se  hiziere  el  registro: 
sea  auido  por  parte  la  persona  a  quien  vinieren  consignadas  las  tales 
mercaderias,  oro,  6  plata,  6  el  que  lo  cargare  en  el  registro  cobrar  la 
perdida  y  aueria  que  vuiere:  y  hazer  la  dexacion  con  la  persona  que 
asseguro.  No  embargante  que  las  tales  mercaderias  no  sean  de  la 
persona  d  quien  vuieren  consignadas.  Esto  se  ha  de  entender  y 
entiende  sin  perjuyzio,  conforme  d  la  ordenanfa  cinquenta  y  cinco,  so 
la  pena  della. 

Que  todas  las  polijas  que  se  hizieren  de  venida  de  qualquier  parte 
de  las  Indias  d  estos  reynos:  assi  sobre  mercaderias  como  sobre  oro, 
y  plata:  assi  en  qualquier  nao,  como  en  nao  nobrada:  sea  y  se  entienda 
q  han  de  estar  corridas  dentro  de  dos  anos,  desde  el  dia  que  se  firmare: 
y  sino  fueren  corridas  lo  que  assi  se  asseguro,  6  quedare  alguna  parte 
dello  por  correr:  q  la  polifa  sea  en  si  ninguna:  y  quede  deshecha  para 
lo  que  faltare  por  correr  el  riesgo,  sino  fueren  de  acuerdo  de  ambas 
las  partes.  Y  de  lo  que  se  deshiziere,  los  asseguradores  bueluan  el 
precio  de  lo  que  recibieren,  tomando  el  medio  por  ciento. 

Que  si  alguna  perdida  6  aueria  vuiere  en  lo  assegurado  de  yda  6 
venida  d  Indias:  que  el  cargador,  6  dueno  della  sea  obligado  d  notificar 
los  asseguradores  que  ay  la  tal  perdida  6  aueria  dentro  de  dos  aiios  de 
la  firma:  y  que  si  no  lo  notificare,  que  despues  no  le  pueda  pedir  en 
ninguna  manera.  Y  que  si  notificaren  que  ay  perdida  6  aueria,  tengan 
otros  dos  anos  de  tiepo  para  traer  los  recaudos  para  cobrar  la  dicha 
perdida  6  aueria.  Y  si  dentro  de  quatro  aiios  despues  de  la  firma  de  la 
polifa  no  pidiere  la  dicha  perdida  y  aueria,  y  truxeren  los  recaudos: 
que  despues  no  la  pueda  pedir  ni  cobrar,  y  los  asseguradores  queden 
libres. 

Que  qualquiera  persona  que  hiziere  seguro  de  venida  de  Indias,  assi 
en  nao  nombrada  como  en  qualquiera,  sea  obligado  d  poner  en  la 


348  APPENDIX  X 

poli^a  del  tal  seguro,  antes  que  firme  algun  assegurador,  si  tiene  hecha 
otra  polifa  de  venida  aqui  6  en  otra  parte,  y  de  que  suma  es,  y  lo  que 
le  falta  de  correr  de  la  tal  poli^a.  Y  si  ansi  no  lo  hiziere,  que  qualquier 
cosa  que  viniere  de  las  dichas  Indias  a  la  persona  que  ansi  se  asseguro, 
sin  dezir  lo  que  mas  tenia  assegurado,  sea  y  se  entienda  venir  para  en 
cuenta  de  cada  polifa  que  tenga  hecha,  aunque  sea  dos  otras  polijas 
que  en  cada  vna  lo  gane  los  asseguradores  todo,  en  pena  de  auerse 
assegurado,  sin  dezir  lo  que  passaua:  y  si  perdida  vuiere,  la  paguen 
solamente  los  primeros  asseguradores,  y  son  los  primeros  aseguradores 
los  primeros  en  tiepo,  auque  aya  vna  poliga  en  qualquiera  nauio,  y 
otra  nao  nobrada,  si  la  en  qualquiera  fuere  primero,  se  ha  de  correr 
primero,  aunque  no  quede  que  corra  los  de  la  nao  nombrada. 

Que  ninguna  mercaderia  que  se  asseguarre  de  venida  de  Indias 
pueda  auer  aueria  de  daiio  ni  falta  que  trayga  la  tal  mercaderia.  Y  si 
algun  daiio  6  falta  vuiere,  ha  de  ser  a  cargo  del  cargador,  y  no  del 
assegurador:  sino  fuere  solamente  aueria  gruessa  de  echazon:  que 
esta  tal  ha  de  ser  a  cargo  de  los  aseguradores  por  su  parte :  conf orme  a 
la  ordenanja  de  arriba  numero  treynta  y  seys. 

Que  en  todas  las  poligas  de  venida  de  Indias,  sobre  oro  y  plata,  y 
perlas,  y  mercaderias,  no  se  pueda  assegurar  el  costo  del  seguro. 

Que  si  alguna  nao  de  venida  de  Indias  se  perdiere  co  oro  6  plata, 
6  perlas,  6  se  descargare  en  algu  puerto,  por  no  estar  la  nao  para  naue- 
gar:  de  suerte  q  verdaderamete  todo  el  oro  y  plata  y  perlas  q  este  en 
saluo  para  poderse  traer  a  esta  ciudad  q  los  dueiios  del  tal  oro  6  plata 
6  perlas,  no  pueda  hazer  dexacio  de  ello  a  los  seguradores,  diziendo  q 
vuo  naufragio,  y  que  se  descargo  la  nao  por  no  estar  para  nauegar  sino 
que  aya  de  esperar  a  q  se  cargue  en  otro  nauio  6  nauios:  y  q  venga  6 
verdaderamente  se  pierda:  y  en  tal  caso  los  aseguradores  han  de 
pagar  todas  las  auerias,  costos  y  gastos  que  se  hizieren  en  poner  el 
dicho  oro  y  plata  y  perlas  en  cobro,  y  cargarlo  en  otros  nauios,  y 
traerlo  a  esta  ciudad,  y  corran  el  riesgo  en  la  nao  6  naos  que  se  tornare 
a  cargar  aunque  sean  passados  los  dos  anos. 

Que  quando  alguna  mercaderia  de  yda  6  de  venida  se  descargare  en 
algun  cabo,  6  se  mudare  de  vna  nao  en  otra,  6  otra  cosa  semejante  que 
sea  por  cosa  que  los  seguradores  sean  obligados  a  pagar  al  cargador 
todas  las  costas  gastos,  dadiuas,  y  rescates  que  se  hizieren  en  beneficio 
de  la  hazienda,  por  cuenta  y  juramento  del  cargador,  6  de  la  persona 
que  lo  gastare:  solamete  sin  mas  recaudos.  Y  si  los  aseguradores  se 
sintieren  por  agrauiados  despues  de  auer  desembolsado  las  dichas 
costas,  sean  recebidos  i  prueua  y  se  verifique. 


APPENDIX  X  349 

Que  en  qualquier  cabo  de  Indias  que  se  cargare  oro  6  plata,  y  si 
pusiere  en  el  registro,  lo  que  costo  hazer  de  mal  oro  bueno,  6  de  mala 
plata  labrada,  que  esta  tal  demasia  no  la  corre  los  asseguradores.  Y 
si  perdida  6  aueria  vuiere,  no  ban  de  pagar  mas  de  lo  que  verdadera- 
mente  montan  los  pesos  de  oro  6  plata  que  vienen. 

Que  quando  alguna  nao  llegare  a  algun  puerto  de  yda  6  venida  a 
Indias:  y  por  la  justicia,  6  por  el  pueblo,  6  por  otra  persona  le  fuere 
tomada  por  fuerga  alguna  mercaderia  sin  pagarsela,  que  los  assegura- 
dores se  la  paguen  por  el  coste,  dando  los  recaudos  de  como  se  la  to- 
maron  para  que  la  puedan  pedir. 

Entiendese,  que  las  fees  de  los  registros  de  venida  de  Indias  son  y 
ban  de  ser  las  verdaderas  cargazones:  Y  por  los  mesmos  dias  que  se 
registraren  sea  entedido,  que  aquel  dia  se  cargan:  no  embargante  que 
la  mercaderia  se  aya  cargado  antes,  6  se  cargare  despues.  Por  manera 
que  el  dia  del  registro  sea  dia  de  carga,  y  siempre  prefiera  el  primero 
registro  al  segudo,  aunque  el  segudo  sea  cargado  primero. 

Y  porque  suele  auer  riesgo  en  las  mercaderias  de  Indias  mientras 
estan  cargando  en  los  puertos  antes  que  se  regis tren:  y  el  que  las 
carga  las  podia  cargar  por  cuenta  de  mas  de  vna  persona,  y  despues 
atribuyr  el  registro  a  quien  quisiere:  sea  y  se  entieda,  que  qual- 
quiera  que  cargare  qualquiera  mercaderia,  el  dia  que  la  cargare  la 
manifieste  ante  el  escriuano  de  los  registros:  y  diga  lo  que  carga,  y  por 
cuenta  de  quien,  en  el  entretanto  que  se  haze  el  registro,  y  la  firma  el 
mercader:  y  que  esta  manifestacion  valga  tan  to  como  el  registro  para 
cobrar  de  los  asseguradores  la  perdida  q  vuiere.  Y  dode  no  vuiere 
manifestacio  ante  el  escriuano  de  los  registros  de  lo  q  se  carga,  y  por 
cueta  de  quien,  que  los  seguradores  no  corran  el  riesgo  sobre  ello. 

Y  quanto  a  las  mercaderias  q  se  cargaren  en  los  puertos  de  Espana 
para  las  Indias,  mientras  no  se  estuvieren  registradas  antes  que  los 
dichos  nauios  partan:  que  si  algun  riesgo  vuiere,  que  el  libro  del  escri- 
uano se  entienda  ser  registro,  y  con  el  y  con  el  juramento  del  cargador 
se  puedan  cobrar,  como  si  estuuiessen  registradas:  y  faltado  el  libro 
del  escriuano,  lo  aya  de  prouar  con  testigos. 

Que  en  qualquiera  manera  de  yda  6  venida  a  Indias,  aya  perdida  de 
nao,  6  naufragio  della,  6  descarga  de  mercaderias  por  no  poder  estar 
la  nao  para  nauegar:  q  en  tal  caso  los  cargadores  pueda  hazer  dexacio 
en  los  asseguradores  de  todas  las  mercaderias,  oro,  6  plata  que  fueren 
6  vinieren  registradas  solamete,  y  costado  de  la  perdida  6  naufragio 
6  descarga,  q  los  asseguradores  scan  obligados  a  desembolsar  luego  por 
madamiento  del  prior  y  consules  todo  lo  q  vuieren  segurado,  sin  q 


3  so  APPENDIX  X 

del  dicho  madamiento  de  desembolso  aya  lugar  apelacio  ni  otro  remedio 
alguno,  sino  ante  todas  cosas  desembolsen  y  pogan  en  poder  de  los 
asseguradores  la  cantidad  que  ansi  seguraren:  dado  primeramente 
fianga  los  asseguradores,  que  si  paresciere  no  ser  bien  cobrados,  bolu- 
eran  lo  que  recibieren  con  treynta  y  tres  por  ciento  de  interesse. 

Entiendese,  que  la  nao  no  esta  para  nauegar,  quando  se  haze  dexa- 
cion  ante  la  justicia,  y  la  justicia  da  licecia  para  descargarla,  y  verdera- 
mente  se  descarga,  y  queda  alii  la  mercaderia  sin  tornarse  a  cargar  en 
la  mesma  nao:  en  tal  caso,  trayendo  testimonio  de  esto  y  en  cuyo 
poder  quedo  la  hazienda,  se  podra  hazer  la  dicha  dexacion,  y  cobrar  de 
los  dichos  asseguradores:  pero  tornadose  a  cargar  en  la  dicha  nao,  no 
se  ha  de  poder  hazer  dexacion,  sino  cobrar  las  costas  de  los  segura- 
dores.  Esto  se  entiede,  no  acaesciendo  lo  susodicho  en  el  puerto  donde 
se  carga  la  tal  mercaderia  porque  descargandose  en  el  dicho  puerto 
donde  se  cargo,  aunque  se  aya  descargado  por  mandamiento  de  la 
justicia,  no  se  ha  de  hazer  dexacion  de  las  dichas  mercadurias,  sino  el 
cargador  ha  de  poner  cobro  en  ellas,  y  los  seguradores  le  ha  de  pagar 
las  costas,  y  mas  fletes  si  vuiere  y  corriere  el  riesgo  en  el  mesmo  nauio 
6  en  otros  donde  se  tornare  a  cargar. 

Que  quando  alguna  persona  estuuiere  assegurado  de  venida  de 
Indias,  y  quisiere  cobrar  alguna  perdida  por  carta  misiua  de  su  factor, 
6  de  la  persona  que  lo  embiare  6  cargare,  sin  mostrar  f e  del  registro, 
que  lo  pueda  hazer:  con  tan  to  que  de  fiangas,  que  dentro  de  dos  aiios 
despues  de  la  sentencia  traera  la  fe  del  registro,  y  la  presentara  ante 
prior  y  consules,  sin  que  se  le  pida  ni  requiera:  y  si  no  la  truxere,  que 
passando  el  dicho  tiempo,  como  depositario  boluera  luego  lo  que  cobro, 
con  mas  los  treynta  y  tres  por  ciento  del  interesse,  si  el  assegurado  los 
quiere  cobrar. 

Que  no  se  pueda  hazer  ninguna  polija  de  seguro  de  yda  ni  de  venida 
a  Indias  sobre  oro  y  plata  y  mercaderias  que  no  vayan  ni  vengan  regis- 
tradas  en  el  registro  del  rey:  y  que  la  poUfa  que  de  otra  manera  se 
hiziere  publica  6  en  confianja,  sea  en  si  ninguna.  Y  que  auque  aya 
perdida,  los  asseguradores  no  sean  obligados  a  pagarlo. 

Que  los  seguros  que  se  hizieren  sobre  esclauos,  6  sobre  bestias  se  aya 
de  declarar  en  la  polija,  como  son  sobre  ellos,  y  de  otra  manera  no  lo 
corren  los  asseguradores.  Y  q  si  alguna  bestia  se  echare  en  la  mar,  q 
no  se  pueda  echar  por  aueria  gruessa,  sino  que  lo  paguen  los  assegu- 
radores. 

Que  todo  lo  que  se  assegurare,  ansi  de  yda  como  de  venida  d  Indias, 
sea  y  se  entienda  estar  assegurado,  cof orme  a  la  poli^a  general  que  esta 


APPENDIX  X  35 1 

puesta  en  estas  ordenanjas:  y  conforme  a  estas  ordenanjas,  que  no  se 
pueda  assegurar  de  otra  manera,  ni  renunciar  la  dicha  polija  ni  parte 
della:  ni  estas  ordenanfasnialgunadella:  so  pena,  que  si  alguna  per- 
sona lo  hiziere  pague  cincuenta  mil  maravedis  de  pena,  la  mitad  para 
la  camara  de  su  Magestad,  y  la  otra  mitad  para  gastos  del  consulado, 
y  que  todavia  se  entienda  estar  el  dicho  seguro  hecho  conforme  d  la 
dicha  polifa,  y  conforme  a  estas  ordenangas. 

PoLigA  General  de  Yda  a  Indias 

In  Dei  Nomine,  Amen.  Otorgamos  y  conoscemos,  los  q  aqui 
baxo  firmaremos,  que  asseguramos  a  vos  fulano,  sobre  qualesquier 
mercaderias,  cargadas  por  vos  6  por  otra  qualquier  persona  6  personas 
por  vos:  y  tambien  vos  asseguramos  sobre  todas  las  costa  y  costas  de 
este  seguro;  las  quales  dichas  mercaderias  van  registradas  en  el  regis tro 
del  Rey  y  a  riesgo  de  fulano,  en  tal  nao  nombrada  tal,  maestre  fulano, 
6  otro  qualquiera  que  vaya  por  maestre  en  la  dicha  nao.  Y  assi  cargada 
la  dicha  mercaderia  en  la  dicha  nao,  siga  su  presente  viage  con  la  buena 
Ventura  hasta  tal  puerto  de  las  Indias:  y  alii  sea  llegada  d  bue  sal- 
uameto,  y  las  mercadurias  descargadas  de  la  dicha  nao  en  qualquier 
barco  6  barcos,  hasta  ser  descargadas  en  tierra  en  buen  saluamento. 
Y  es  condicion,  que  la  dicha  nao  pueda  hazer  y  haga  todas  las  escalas 
que  quisiere  y  por  bie  tuuiere,  asi  forf  osas  como  voluntarias,  entrando  y 
saliendo  en  qualquier  puerto  6  puertos:  dando  y  recibiendo  carga,  no 
mudando  viage,  sino  fuere  por  juntarse  con  alguna  compaiiia. 

Y  si  riesgo  6  daiio  vuiere,  dezimos,  q  trayendolo  por  certificacion, 
hecha  con  parte  6  sin  parte,  6  por  persona  q  no  sea  parte,  hecha  en  el 
lugar  donde  se  perdiere  la  nao,  6  en  otra  qualquier  parte :  que  passados 
los  seys  meses,  contados  desde  el  dia  que  la  poli^a  de  asseguro  se 
firmare,  pagaremos  llanamente,  y  desembolsaremos  luego  ante  todas 
cosas,  y  depositaremos  en  poder  del  cargador,  6  persona  que  se  haze 
assegurar  todo  lo  que  vuieremos  firmado:  6  la  parte  que  del  dano  nos 
cupiere  a  pagar,  con  tanto  que  nos  deys  finajas  lianas  y  abonadas, 
para  que  si  fuere  mal  pagado,  nos  lo  boluereys  con  treynta  y  tres  por 
ciento. 

Y  si  la  nao  no  paresciere,  se  entiede  que  hemos  de  pagar  dentro  de 
vn  ano  y  medio  que  la  nao  vuiere  salida  del  puerto,  y  no  paresciere 
dentro  del  dicho  ano  y  medio.  Y  el  aiio  y  medio  se  ha  de  con  tar  dende 
que  la  nao  sale  del  puerto,  y  no  dende  que  la  poli^a  se  firma. 

Y  entiendese  que  lo  hemos  de  correr  los  primeros  y  postreros  a 
sueldo  a  libra,  hasta  la  contidad  que  monta  la  cargazon,  y  los  demas 


352  APPENDIX  X 

de  lo  que  montare  la  cargazon  han  de  yr  fuera  conforme  a  la 
ordenan^a. 

Y  de  esta  manera  y  con  estas  condiciones  somos  contetos  de  correr 
el  dicho  riesgo.  Y  para  ello  obligamos  nuestras  personas  y  bienes,  y 
damos  poder  cumplido  a  los  juezes  de  la  casa  de  la  contratacion  desta 
ciudad  de  Seuilla,  y  a  otras  qualesquier  justicias  de  estos  reynos:  para 
que  nos  lo  hagan  cumplir:  y  renunciamos  nuestro  proprio  fuero  y 
jurisdiccion  y  la  ley  si  conuenerit,  y  sometemonos  al  fuero  y  jurisdic- 
cion  de  los  dichos  juezes  officiales,  y  d  todas  las  otras  justicias,  y  al 
prior  y  consules  que  son  6  f ueren  de  aqui  adelante  de  la  vniuersidad  de 
los  mercaderes  tratantes  en  las  Indias  desta  ciudad  de  Seuilla,  para 
que  por  todo  rigor  de  derecho,  asi  por  via  executiva  como  en  otra 
qualquier  manera  nos  compelan  y  apremien  a  lo  ansi  guardar  y  cumplir 
como  si  fuesse  juzgado  y  sentenciado  por  sentencia  diffinitiua  dada  por 
juez  competente  en  contraditorio  juyzio:  y  por  nos  y  por  cada  vno  de 
nos  consentida  y  passada  en  cosa  juzgada. 

LiMITACIONES  DE  LA  POLI^A  PaSSADA:    Y  DeCLARACION  DeLLA 

Y  Entiendese,  que  en  diziendo  mercaderias  todo  genero  de  mercade- 
rias,  excepto  bestias  y  esclauos,  caxcos  y  aparejos,  y  fletes,  y  artilleria 
de  naos,  que  como  diga  mercaderia,  no  ay  cosa  exceptada  sino  las 
susodichas. 

Y  entiendese,  que  se  corre  el  riesgo  dende  el  punto  y  hora  que  las 
mercadurias  se  commeng:aron  6  commen^aren  a  cargar  dede  tierra  en 
el  puerto  de  las  muelas  del  rio  de  Guadalquiuir  desta  ciudad  de  Seuilla 
en  la  dicha  nao.  Y  si  las  dichas  mercadurias  6  qualquier  dellas  se 
Ueuare  en  qualquier  barco  6  barcos  a  la  dha  nao  se  corre  el  dicho  riesgo, 
estando  la  nao  en  qualquiera  parte  de  este  rio  hasta  Sanlucar,  y  correse 
el  riesgo  en  el  dicho  barco  6  barcos,  hasta  q  la  mercaduria  este  cargada 
dentro  en  la  dicha  nao:  y  auque  se  cargue  de  esta  manera  se  entiende 
que  es  cargada  en  este  rio  y  en  este  puerto. 

Y  donde  dize  la  polija,  hasta  ser  descargadas  en  tierra  en  buen 
saluamento,  se  pone  esta  declaracion:  y  hasta  entoces  corre  el  riesgo 
sobre  el  assegurador.  Y  siendo  el  riesgo  para  nueua  Espana,  entiedese 
que  han  de  correr  los  dichos  asseguradores  el  riesgo  hasta  que  las  merca- 
durias sean  descargadas  en  sant  luan  de  Lua  en  barcos,  y  las  Ueuen  d 
la  Veracruz,  y  alii  sean  descargadas  en  buen  saluamento. 

Y  entiendese,  que  las  naos  que  fueren  a  la  Isla  de  sant  luan,  que 
puedan  hazer  escalas  con  ellas  si  quisieren,  en  qualesquier  puerto  6 


APPENDIX  X  353 

puertos  de  las  Islas  de  Canada,  y  en  otros  qualesquiera,  como  no  mude 
viage.  Y  la  nao  que  fuere  d  qualquier  puerto  de  la  Isla  Espanola,  se 
entienda,  que  pueda  hazer  escala,  y  dar  y  recebir  carga  en  qualesquier 
puerto  6  puertos  de  las  Islas  de  Canaria,  islas  de  sant  luan  de  Puerto 
rico,  sant  German,  y  otros  puertos  de  la  dicha  isla  Espanola.  Y  la  nao 
que  fuere  al  nombre  de  Dios,  pueda  hazer  escala  en  los  dichos  puerto 
6  puertos  de  las  islas  de  Canaria  e  islas  de  sant  luan  Puerto  rico,  y 
sant  German:  y  en  qualesquier  puerto  6  puertos  de  la  isla  Espanola, 
y  en  el  cabo  de  la  vela,  y  lamayca,  y  sancta  Martha,  y  Cartagena.  Y 
la  nao  que  fuere  a  Cuba  pueda  hazer  escala  en  las  dichas  islas  de 
Canaria  y  san  luan,  y  isla  Espanola.  Y  la  que  fuere  al  cabo  de  Hon- 
duras pueda  hazer  escala  en  las  dichas  islas  de  Canaria,  san  luan  y 
isla  Espanola,  y  en  la  isla  de  lamayca,  Cuba  y  Hauana.  Y  la  nao  que 
fuere  d  la  nueua  Espafia,  pueda  hazer  escala  en  las  dichas  islas  de 
Canaria,  y  sant  luan  y  sant  German,  y  isla  Espanola,  y  isla  de  Cuba. 
Y  si  alguna  nao  fuere  a  otros  puertos  de  las  Indias,  pueda  hazer  escalas 
conforme  d  estas  que  estan  dichas  las  q  fueren  en  el  camino  del  puerto 
adonde  fuere  a  descargar. 

Y  entiendese,  que  la  nao  que  fuere  por  su  voltitad  a  las  islas  de 
Caboverde,  y  en  las  poH^as  de  seguro  que  se  hizieren  no  se  pusiere  y 
declarare  que  lo  tal  es  mundaja  de  viage:  y  si  se  perdiere  la  nao,  que 
el  assegurador  no  ha  de  pagar  cosa  ninguna,  agora  se  pierda  6  roben 
la  nao  antes  de  Uegar  a  las  dichas  islas  de  Cabo  verde,  6  despues. 

Entiendese,  q  quato  al  costo  y  valor  de  la  mercaduria,  se  ha  de 
creer  por  solo  juramento  del  cargador  sin  mas  diligencia. 

El  qual  seguro  se  entiende  de  mar,  y  viento,  y  fuego,  y  de  enemigos 
y  amigos,  y  de  otro  qualquier  caso  q  acaezca  6  acaescer  pueda,  excepto 
de  barateria  de  patron,  o  macamiento  de  la  mercaduria. 

Y  entendiese,  que  si  necessario  fuere  traspassar  la  mercaderia  de  vn 
nauio  en  otro,  6  de  otro  en  otro:  assi  en  mar  como  en  puerto:  y  descar- 
gar la  mercaderia  en  tierra,  y  tornarla  a  cargar  en  el  nauio  6  nauios 
donde  fuere,  6  en  otros  qualesquier  caxco  6  caxcos,  que  lo  puedan  hazer 
sin  que  pare  perjuyzio  al  que  se  haze  assegurar.  Y  todas  las  costas 
que  se  hizieren  pagaremos  nos  los  asseguradores:  quier  vayan  en 
saluo  las  mercaderias  6  no.  Y  si  algun  caso  acontesciesse,  damos 
licencia  al  cargador,  6  a  la  persona  que  de  la  mercaderia  lleuare  cargo, 
para  que  el  le  pueda  poner  la  mano,  y  beneficiarla,  ni  mas  ni  menos 
que  si  no  estuuiesse  assegurada. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Acapulco,  145,  146,  149,  184. 

Acosta,  Jos6  de,  161,  193. 

Acuerdo  de  hacienda,  89. 

Acuna,  Dr.  Alberto  de,  45  n. 

Admirals,  of  Castile,  6  n.,  41  n.;  of  the 
flotas  and  armadas,  see  Almirantes. 

Admiralty,  court  of,  in  Andalusia,  26, 
41  n. 

Admiralty  dues,  6  and  n. 

Aduana,  see  Customhouses. 

Aduanilla,  135. 

Africa,  trade  with,  5  n.,  25,  69. 

Agente  solicitador  of  the  Casa,  57  n. 

Agriculture  in  Spanish  America,  pre- 
miums for,  106;  encouraged  by  the 
Crown,  124,  125;     backwardness  of, 

131-133- 
Aguila,  Pedro  de,  9. 
Albert  and  Isabel,  archdukes  of  Flanders, 

129. 
Alcabala  in  Andalusia,   administration 

of,  48;  colonial  trade  exempt  from,  6; 

colonial  trade  subject  to,  83,  84. 
Alcabala  in  the  colonies,  106,  137,  255. 
Alcaide  y  guarda  mayor  of  the  Casa, 

2>2,  n.,  55,  56. 
Alcdzar  Real  of  Seville,  residence  of  the 

Casa,  25. 
Alguacil  mayor  of  the  Casa,  54-56. 
Alguaciles  of  the  Casa,  44,  54. 
Alguaciles  of  the  Consulado,  44. 
Almaden  quicksilver  mine,  51,  158,  159, 

161. 
Almagro,  Diego,  100. 
Almiranta,  79,  222. 
Almirantazgo,  see  Admiralty  dues. 
Almirantazgo  (mercantile  gild  of  Flan- 
ders), 256. 
Almirantes  of  the  flotas  and  armadas, 

75,  206,  217,  218,  317. 
Almojarifazgo,  see  Custom  duties. 


Almojarifes,  86. 

Alvarez  Osorio  y  Redin,  Miguel,  cited  in 

text,  56,  63,  119,  138,  217. 
Amalfi,  Laws  of,  318. 
Amalgamation  of  silver  ore,  51,  158,  160. 
America,   discovery    of,  xif.;    see  also 

Columbus;  early  descriptions  of,  xviiif., 

310,312. 
Amilivia,  Domingo  Alonso  de,  69,  70. 
Ampies,  Juan  de,  22  n. 
Andagoya,  Pascual  de,  192. 
Andalusia,  corsairs  on  the  coasts  of,  16, 

70;  merchants  of,  65,  81,  172. 
Annuities  issued  by  the  Crown,  80  n., 

i35>  169-172,  passim. 
Antioquia,  188. 
Antonio,  Bautista,  244. 
Antwerp,  24,  25  n. 
Aragonese  in  America,  96-98. 
Aranda,  Count  of,  196. 
Araya,  salt  pans  of,  119. 
Area  de  tres  llaves,  see  Casa  de  Contra- 

taci6n  of  Seville  —  coffers. 
Archivo  de  Indias  (Seville),  xv,  xviii. 
Archivo  hist6rico-nacional  (Madrid),  xv. 
Arcos,  Duke  of,  70. 
Arica,  189  n. 
Armada  de  la  carrera  de  las  Indias,  69, 

70,  202,  204,  209,  210,  252. 
Armada,  of  the  South  Sea,  83  n.,  152, 189, 

240,  241;  of  1588  against  England,  90, 

161  n.,    266,    268;    del   mar  oc6ano, 

218  n.;    de    barlovento,   see    Fleets, 

coast-guard,  in  the  colonies.    See  also 

Convoys. 
Armadores,  315. 
Arqueador  of  the  Casa,  282  n. 
Arriaga,  Luis  de,  24. 
Arribadas  maliciosas,  139. 
Arte  de  navegar,  of  Pedro  de  Medina,  310. 
Artillero  mayor  of  the  Casa,  50. 


357 


3S8 


INDEX 


Artillery,  administration  of,  30,  49,  50, 
56,  57,  79;  description  of ,  274,  275  and 
n.;  school,  50. 

Asesor  of  the  Casa,  see  Juez  asesor. 

Asesor  of  the  Consulado,  44. 

Asiento  of  the  averia,  see  Averia. 

Asiento  of  negroes,  see  Slave  trade. 

Asistente  (chief  justice)  of  Seville,  40,  41. 

Astrolabe,  304,  305. 

Asylum,  right  of,  43  n. 

Atarazanas  of  Seville,  residence  of  the 
Casa,  25;  warehouse  of  the  Casa,  31  n., 

49,  99- 

Atarazanas  (arsenal)  of  the  Casa,  49,  50. 

Atrato  River,  193, 194. 

Audiencias,  relations  of,  with  the  colonial 
exchequer,  89,  93. 

Ausentes  y  dep6sitos  (unclaimed  or  se- 
questered property), 31  n.,33  n.,48,S2. 

Averia,  13,  54,  55,  60  n.,  61  n.,  67-82, 
202-206,  passim,  $2"/;  administration 
of,  51-53,  58  n.,  69,  70,  72-75;  rate  of, 
65,  69,  72,  73,  76-78,  79  n.,  83  n.,  328; 
assessment  of,  72-74;  exemptions 
from,  74  and  n.,  75  andn.;  contribu- 
tion to,  by  passengers  on  the  galleons, 
76;  asiento  of,  with  the  Seville  mer- 
chants, 78-80;  vieja,  80  and  n.;  abol- 
ished on  cargoes  from  America,  80, 81 ; 
gruesa,  82  n.;  in  Peru,  83  n.;  del 
camino,  183- 

Avil6s,  15. 

Azogues,  162. 

Azores,  corsairs  about  the,  68-71,  202, 
228. 

Badajoz,  Alonso  de,  157,  158. 

Badoero,  Andrea,  163. 

Bahama  channel,  228. 

Balearic    Islands,    135;      admitted    to 

colonial  trade,  98  n. 
Bankruptcies,  44,  79,  80,  82. 
Barbadoes,  118,  235. 
Barbary  coast,  see  Africa. 
Barcelona  (Spain),  15,  40. 
Barinas,  Marquis  of,  143, 152  and  n.,  250, 
Barratry,  41. 
Barrionuevo,  Francisco  de,  182. 


Basilisks,  275  n. 

Bastidas,  Rodrigo  de,  24,  309. 

Bayona,  15, 17  n. 

Bazan,  Alonso,  264. 

Bazan,  Alvaro,  264,  265. 

Benevides  y  Bazan,  Juan  de,  237-239. 

Benzoni,  Girolamo,  quoted,  293. 

Berardi,  Juanoto,  262. 

Biedma,  Sancho  de,  211. 

Bienes  de  difuntos,  31  and  n.,  33  n.,  48, 
52;  depository-general  of,  48. 

Bilbao,  15,  16. 

Biscay  provinces,  trade  of,  15-17,  passim, 
153,  154;  shipbuilding  in,  266,  270. 
See  also  Bilbao,  Coruna,  etc. 

Biscayan  pilots,  gild  of,  319. 

Blackmail  of  foreigners  in  the  colonies, 
see  Foreigners. 

Blake,  Admiral  Robert,  13,  245,  246. 

Boabdil,  Muley,  262. 

Bodenham,  Roger,  258,  260. 

Bonds  required  of  those  connected  with 
colonial  trade.  See  Casa  de  Contrata- 
ci6n  of  Seville;  Fleets,  ofl&cers  of; 
Masters  of  ships. 

Book  of  Registers,  16,  18. 

Books,  export  of,  to  the  colonies  re- 
stricted, 135,  136,  152. 

Borough,  Stephen,  39,  311. 

Bottomry  bills,  285,  286. 

Bounties  to  shipbuilders,  68,  259  and  n. 

Brazil,  116,  147;  trade  with  the  Rio  de 
la  Plata,  117,  140-143. 

Brazilwood,  31. 

Breda,  siege  of,  171. 

Bretons  in  the  Canaries,  19. 

Breve  compendia  de  la  esfera  y  de  la  arte  de 
navegar,  of  Martin  Cortes,  311. 

Bristol,  merchants  of,  19. 

Briviesca,  Jimeno  de,  21  and  n. 

Brochero,  Diego,  270. 

Brokers,  insurance,  286. 

Buccaneers,  114,  194,  195,  248-251. 
See  also  Corsairs. 

Buenos  Aires,  trade  with,  87  n.,  117, 118, 
140-143,  162. 

Bullion,  export  of,  to  the  colonies  for- 
bidden, 26,  134. 


INDEX 


359 


Bullion,  American,  xii,  jni,  31  n.,  34,  51, 
70,  82;  amounts  remitted  to  Spain,  13, 
162-171,  246,  336-338;  export  to 
foreign  countries,  13,  64,  113,  114  and 
n.,  14s,  177, 178;  seized  by  the  Crown, 
24,  169-174;  unregistered,  30,31,  62- 
65,  81;  captured  by  corsairs,  69,  70, 
83  n.;  shipped  on  men-of-war,  72,  79, 
206  and  n.,  220  n.;  transport  from 
Cadiz  to  Seville,  292;  disposal  of,  in 
Spain,  see  Bullion  merchants.  See  also 
Mines,  Quinto. 

Bullion  merchants,  174-176. 

Burgos,  consulado  of,  see  Consulado. 

Cabot,  Sebastian,  36-39,  passim,  299- 
301,  306,  311. 

Cabrera,  Amador  de,  160  and  n. 

Cadereyta,  Marquis  of,  65,  243,  255,  296. 

Cadiz,  5,  6n.,  7,  9-17,  53,  58,  64,  74  n., 
82,  84,  86,  108;  visitador,  9,  291; 
Juzgado  de  Indias,  10-12,  14-16,  42. 

Calatrava,  military  order  of,  159. 

Calero,  Alonso,  191, 

Callao,  83  n.,  85,  145,  149, 150,  184,  189 
and  n.,  240,  241. 

Campeche,  87  and  n.,  248,  250. 

Campos,  Alonso  de,  254. 

Canal,  inter-oceanic,  190-197. 

Canary  Islands,  68,  69,  86,  97,  no,  113, 
125  n.,  219,  223;  trade  of,  with 
America,  18-20,  25;  emigration  from, 
to  America,  98  n.,  125. 

Caiiones,  275  n. 

Capitdn  y  superintendente  de  las  maes- 
tranzas,  49. 

Capitana  (flagship  of  the  fleets),  79,  222. 

Captains  in  the  armadas,  75,  217,  315, 
317. 

Captains  general  of  the  flotas  and  ar- 
madas, 75,  206,  217-219,  222,  225, 
226,  239,  240,  290,  317;  residencia  of, 
229. 

Caracas,  87  n. 

Cardcas  Company,  see  Guipuzcoa,  Com- 
pany of. 

Caravels,  212,  263. 

Cardona,  Nicolds  de,  24,  151. 


Careening  of  ships,  49,  272  n.,  273. 

Caribbean  Sea,  see  West  Indies. 

Carracks,  xi,  68,  264. 

Carreno,  Bartolom6,  71,  77,  169,  170, 
211. 

Cartagena  (Spain),  15,  17. 

Cartagena  de  Indias,  81,  87,  10711.,  138, 
139,  151,  188-190,  passim,  232,  244, 
250,  252. 

Cartography  of  America,  306-308,  309, 
310,  314.  See  also  Cosmographers  of 
the  Casa. 

Carvajal,  Andres  de,  32. 

Carvajal,  Gonzalo  de,  294. 

Casa  da  India  (Portugal),  23. 

Casa  de  Contractaci6n  of  Coruna,  25  n. 

Casa  de  Contrataci6n  of  Seville,  estab- 
lishment of,  3,  7;  relations  with  Cadiz, 
9-15;  relations  with  the  Canaries,  17- 
20;  ordinances,  xvii,  21,  22,  24,  25, 
28-34;  duties  of  its  officials,  22, 
29  ff.;  records,  25,  30,  31  n.,  52  n.; 
residence,  25,  26;  judicial  power,  29, 
39-43»  57,  58;  office  hours,  29,  33  and 
n.;  correspondence,  30,  3  in.,  33  n., 
34;  order  of  voting,  30  n.;  coffers, 
31  n.,  52  n.,  74,  75.  93;  pnson,  32; 
chapel,  32  and  n.,  55;  privileges  and 
exemptions,  33;  clerical  staff,  33  and 
n.;  leave  of  absence,  33  n.;  bonding  of 
its  officers,  34  n.,  48,  56;  officers  for- 
bidden to  trade,  34;  salaries,  35,  38, 
80  n.,  95, 326;  hydrographic  bureau  and 
school  of  navigation,  35-39,  298-308; 
cartography,  36;  threatened  removal 
from  Seville,  41,  98;  increase  of  per- 
sonnel, 56;  faults  of  administration, 
56,  73;  connivance  of  officials  in 
frauds,  67;  receipts,  164-167,  170,  171, 
329-331.  ^ee  a/50  Comptroller;  Factor; 
Jueces  oficiales;  Pilot-major;  Presi- 
dent; Treasurer;  etc. 

Casa  de  fundici6n,  155,  157. 

Casa  Lonja,  xv,  325. 

Casas,  Bartolome  de  las,  107. 

Casas  de  Contrataci6n  in  America,  26-28. 

Castellanos,  firm  of,  175. 

Castellanos  de  Espinosa,  Juan,  48. 


36o 


INDEX 


Castilian  monopoly  of  American  trade, 
26,  97,  98. 

Castilla  del  Oro,  131,  157. 

Castillo,  Pedro  de,  10  n. 

Castrillo,  Garcia  de  Avellaneda,  Count 
of,  33  n.,  55- 

Cateau  Cambresis,  Peace  of,  77. 

Catherine  de  Medici,  77. 

Catholic  Kings,  xviii,  3,  21,  22  n.,  26,  28, 
40,  55,  83,  97, 105, 126,  134, 15s,  259. 

Cavallero,  Diego,  251. 

Cavalli,  Marino,  163. 

Cavendish,  Thomas,  140,  240. 

Cebu,  144. 

Centeno,  Jose,  14. 

Chagres  River,  181-184, />(w«f»,  191, 192, 
196. 

Chagres  (town),  250. 

Chambers  of  the  Casa,  58. 

Charles  II  (of  Spain),  xviii,  243,  271. 

Charles  II  (of  England),  247,  248. 

Charles  III  (of  Spain),  xv,  20,  143, 196. 

Charles  V,  emperor,  xviii,  8,  25  n.,  26  n., 
35, 37  and  n.,  42, 43,  69,  71, 83, 92, 107, 
124,  125,  137,  159,  166,  190-192,  203, 
258;  freedom  of  trade  under,  13, 15-17, 
98-101 ;  freedom  of  emigration  under, 
96;  seizure  of  American  bullion  by, 
169,  170,  172;  wars  of  with  Francis  I, 
16,  69,  71,  170. 

Charts,  nautical,  see  Cartography. 

Charts,  magnetic,  312. 

Chaves,  Alonso  de,  37  and  n.,  261,  302, 

307. 
Chaves,  Jer6nimo  de,  38,  303. 
Chile,  copper  production  in,  155  and  n. 
Chilton,  Leonard,  258. 
China,  trade  of  Spanish  America  with, 

145-149. 
Chroniclers  of  America,  early,  xviii  f . 
Church  in  Spanish  America,   130-133, 

255- 
Cifuentes,  Count  of,  40. 
Cimaroon  Indians,  183. 
Cliflford,  George,  see  Cumberland,  George 

Clifford,  Earl  of. 
Cloth  industry  in  Spanish  America,  see 

Textile  industry. 


Coatzacoalcos  River,  190. 

Cobos,  Francisco  de  los,  42. 

Cocoa,  27,  119,  149  n.,  150. 

Collections  of  colonial  documents, 
printed,  xvi  f . 

Colmenar  de  Arenas,  70  n. 

Colon,  Cristobal,  251. 

Colonial  policy  and  administration,  see 
Spain;  Spanish  America. 

Columbus,  Bartholomew,  267. 

Columbus,  Christopher,  3,  7,  19,  21,  22, 
24,  27,  40,  59,  68, 105, 125  n.,  261,  266, 
309;  capitulations  of,  with  the  Crown, 
4,  5  n.,  6  n.;  profits  of,  4,  6  n. 

Columbus,  Christopher  (grandson  of 
above),  see  Colon,  Cristobal. 

Columbus,  Fernando,  37  n.,  92,  307. 

Comitres,  gild  of  the,  319. 

Compass,  mariner's,  305,  311,  312. 

Compendio  del  arte  de  navegar,  of  Rodrigo 
Zamorano,  313. 

Composiciones,  c6dulas generales  de,  in. 

Compradores  de  oro  y  plata,  see  Bullion 
merchants. 

Comptroller  (contador)  of  the  Casa,  21, 
26n.,  ss,  34 n-,  49,  52, 59, 60 n.,  69,  288. 

Comptrollers,  royal,  in  the  colonies,  4, 
27,  63  n.,  88. 

Comuneros,  insurrection  of  the,  98  n. 

Condamine,  Charles-Marie  de  la,  195. 

Constables  —  see  Alguaciles. 

Consulado  of  Burgos,  40,  41,  43. 

Consulado  of  Seville,  xvii,  25  n.,  43-45, 
47,  72,  73,  78,  79,  108,  109,  136,  137, 
142,  150,  169,  171,  175,  203,  204,  214, 
268,  281,  286,  325. 

Consulados  in  the  colonies, 45  and  n.,  136. 

Contador,  see  Comptroller;  Diputado 
contador  de  averlas;  Tribunal  de  la 
contaduria. 

Contarini,  Gasparo,  163. 

Contraband  trade,  18-20,  62-67,  77,  78, 
80,  86,  94,  143,  215-217;  at  Cadiz 
and  San  Lucar,  111-115;  in  the  col- 
onies, 115-121,  149,  150,  152,  212. 

Contremaestre,  314. 

Conversos  excluded  from  the  colonies, 
104,  105. 


INDEX 


361 


Convoys  of  the  merchant  fleets,  16,  49, 
51,  53,  67,  84,  201  fif.;  size  of,  71,  78, 
79  and  n.,  202,  206,  210;  carry  mer- 
chandise, 72,  79,  206,  209,  215-217; 
devoted  to  other  uses,  82;  soldiers  on, 
206,  219,  220.  See  also  Armada  de  la 
carrera  de  las  Indias;  Averia;  Ships. 

Cooper,  Captain  (buccaneer),  248. 

Copper,  155  and  n.;  sheathing  for  ships, 
278. 

C6rdoba  (Argentina),  142. 

C6rdoba,  Luis  de,  295. 

Coreal,  Francois,  188. 

Coro,  loi,  247. 

Corral,  Miguel  del,  195. 

Corredores  de  seguros,  see  Brokers, 
insurance. 

Correo  mayor,  see  Postmaster-general. 

Corsairs,  13,  68, 189,  202,  231  ff.;  French, 
16,  68-71,  76,  77,  231-234;  English, 
77, 116,  231,  234,  235,  248-251;  Dutch, 
171,  240,  241. 

Cortes,  Hernando,  21,  70, 190,  191,  204  n. 

Cort6s,  Martin,  son  of  Hernando,  126. 

Cortes,  Martin  (cosmographer),  311. 

Cortes  of  Castile,  127,  130,  172, 173, 178, 
197. 

Coruna,  13,  15,  16,  17  n.,  25  n.,  98. 

Cosa,  Juan  de  la,  36,  309. 

Cosmographers,  of  the  Casa,  36-38, 
passim,  300-302,  passim,  306,  308- 
314,  passim;  of  the  Council  of  the 
Indies,  38  n. 

Cosmographer  major  to  the  king,  312, 

313- 
Cosmography,  professor  of,  at  the  Casa, 

38,  300  n.,  302-305. 
Cottington,  Sir  Francis,  247. 
Cotto,  Francisco,  36. 
Cotton  fabrics  imported  from  the  Orient, 

145. 

Council  of  the  Hacienda,  95. 

Council  of  the  Indies,  xv,  xvii,  9,  11,  17, 
19-21,  38  n.,  41-45,  passim,  46,  54, 
55,  67,  75,  87,  93,  95,  loi,  108,  109, 
120,  135,  140,  176,  196,  214,  217,  218, 
281,  282. 

Cramer,  Agustin,  195. 


Criminals  transported  to  America,  105. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  194,  210,  244,  245. 

Cross-staff,  304  n. 

Crown,  trade  with  the  colonies,  4,  5,  22- 
24,  29,  31;  revenues  from  America, 
47  and  n.,  56,  95,  162-167,  169,  336- 
338;  dependence  on  foreign  bankers, 
67,  99,  100;  subsidies  to,  from  the 
merchants,  171;  monopoly  of  quick- 
silver, see  Quicksilver;  seizure  of  bul- 
lion, see  Bullion. 

Cruces,  see  Venta  Cruz. 

Cruzada,  Santa,  58. 

Cuba,  69,  87  n.,  124,  125  and  n.,  155. 

Cuesta,  Miguel  de  la,  182. 

Culverins,  275  n. 

Cumand,  85  n.,  87  and  n.,  118,  139,  247, 
249. 

Cumanagote,  250. 

Cumberland,  George  Clifford,  Earl  of, 
77,  82,  116. 

Cunega,  Felix  de,  president  of  San 
Domingo,  120. 

Curafoa,  118. 

Currents,  Atlantic  ocean,  310. 

Customhouses  established  in  America,  4, 
27. 

Custom  duties,  in  the  colonies,  6,  84,  85, 
137;  in  Andalusia,  48,  65,  81,  83-86; 
appraisal  of,  85,  88-92,  136;  see  also 
Contraband  trade;  Registration. 

Dampier,  William,  185. 

Dari^n,  Gulf  of,  192,  194;  province  of, 

106,  195.    See  also  Tierra  Firme. 
Ddvila,  Pedrarias,  24,  180,  277,  310. 
Demiculverins,  274. 
Deputy  auditor  of  the  averia,  see  Dipu- 

tado  contador. 
Derecho  de  extrangerfa,  88. 
Derecho  de  lonja,  325. 
Derecho  de  toneladas,  see  Tonnage  dues. 
Derecho  de  union  de  annas,  254,  255. 
Desaguadero  de  Nicaragua,  see  San  Juan 

River. 
De  Sphaera  Mundi,  303  n. 
Diaz,  Bartolom6,  287. 
Diaz  Pimienta,  Francisco,  120. 


362 


INDEX 


Diaz  de  Pisa,  Bernal,  63  n. 

Diaz  de  Solis,  Juan,  24,  36,  37,  278. 

Diezmo,  of  bullion,  157. 

Diputado  contador  de  averlas,  51-53,  75. 

Dispatch   boats   to   the   colonies,    223, 

229  n.,  230,   See  also  Pataches. 
Diustegui,  Agustin  de,  254. 
Doria,  J.  Andrea,  206  n 
Doyley,  Edward,  247. 
Drake,  Sir  Francis,  10,  77,  82  and  n.,  182, 

210,  240. 
Dutch  trade  with  Spanish  America,  xxi, 

63,  114 n.,  ii7-ii9»  129,  236. 
Dutch  West  India  Company,  naval  war 

of,  in  America,  236-238,  240-242. 

East  Indies,  search  for  a  strait  to,  36,  37, 

190;  trade  with,  see  Casa  de  Contra- 

taci6n  of  Coruna;  Portugal. 
Eden,  Richard,  311. 
Egues,  Diego  de,  13. 
Ehinger  family,  of  Constance,  99. 
Ehinger,  Ambrosius,  99. 
El  Dorado,  loi. 
Elizabeth  of  Valois,  77. 
Emigration  to  the  colonies,  5,  15,  96  ff., 

132;    confined  to  Castilians,  96,  97; 

inducements    offered    for,     105-107; 

illicit,  109-111, 136.   See  also  Licenses; 

Registration. 
Emigration  from   the   Antilles   to   the 

mainland,  107. 
Encinas,  Diego  de,  xvi,  15. 
Enciso,  Diego  de,  182. 
England,  trade  with  Spanish  America, 

19,    63,    114  n.,    116,   247,   248,   250; 

naval    war    with     Spain,     244-247; 

treaties  with  Spain,  247,  250. 
Enriquez,  Fernando  (Admiral  of  Castile), 

6n. 
Enriquez  de   Guzman,   Alonso,   183  n., 

230. 
Escalante  de  Mendoza,  Juan  de,  263, 

312,313. 
Escribano,  de  nao,  see  Ship's  clerk;  de 

armadas,  49,  74,  75;  de  rcgistros,  63. 
Escribano  mayor  of  the  Casa,  54  n. 
Espingardas,  272. 


Essex,  Robert  Devereux,  Earl  of,  82. 
Estrees,  Jean,  comte  d',  115  n. 
Examination  of  mariners,  36,  273,  277, 

299-302,  315. 
Exchange,    merchants,    of    Seville,    see 

Casa  Lonja. 
Exchequer,    colonial,    27,    30,    92-95; 

royal,  34,  43,  52,  78,  81,  82,  95,  108. 
Exchequer  ofl&cials  in  the  colonies,  see 

Oficiales  reales. 

Fabricador  de  instrumentos,  38,  305. 

Factor  of  the  Casa,  21,  26  n.,  2,Zi  34ii-> 
47,  48-51,  53,  75,  176,  275. 

Factors,  commercial,  102  n.;  royal,  4,  22 
and  n.,  23,  25,  27. 

Fairs,  CastiUan,  24,  177. 

Fajardo,  Juan,  296. 

Falconetes,  275  n. 

Falcons  (artillery),  274,  275. 

Falero,  Francisco,  38,  39. 

Falero,  Rui,  38,  39. 

Fanshaw,  Sir  Richard,  248. 

Felipe,  Diego,  211. 

Ferdinand  III,  8. 

Ferdinand  V,  22,  23,  28,  29,  35,  36,  41, 
68,  96-98,  104,  108,  125. 

Ferdinand  VII,  197. 

Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  see  Catholic 
Kings. 

Fernandez  de  Enciso,  Martin,  310. 

Fernandez  de  Navarrete,  Martin,  xv,  xvi. 

Fernandez  de  Navarrete,  Pedro,  164. 

Fernandez  de  Oviedo  y  Valdes,  Gonzalo, 
96. 

Fernandez  de  Santillan,  Felipe,  161. 

Firearms,  export  of,  to  the  colonies  for- 
bidden, 134, 135. 

Fiscal  of  the  Casa,  53,  57  and  n. 

Flanders  trade,  12,  15,  19,  129. 

Fleets,  American,  return  to  other  ports 
than  Seville,  13,  14;  establishment  of 
system  of,  16,  71, 166,  201-207;  equip- 
ping and  provisioning  of,  49,  50,  75,  79, 
83,  243;  officers  of,  60,  219-221;  size 
of,  71,  73,  201,  205,  211-215,  237,  24s, 
246,  281,  296;  winter  in  America,  80, 
207,  208;  time  of  sailing,  90,  207-209; 


INDEX 


363 


value  of  bullion  on,  165-171,  passim, 
336-338;  route  of,  203,  204,  223-228; 
description  of  voyage  of,  222-230;  in- 
structions, 222-22g,  passim;  destroyed 
by  enemies,  236-239,  245,  246;  de- 
cline of,  see  Trade.  See  also  Armada; 
Averia;  Convoys;  Ships. 

Fleets  to  guard  the  American  coasts,  202, 
204,  233,  251-255.  See  also  Armada 
de  la  carrera  de  las  Indias. 

Florence,  24. 

Flores,  Alvaro  de,  13. 

Florida,  139,  228. 

Florin,  Jean,  70  and  n. 

Fonseca,  port  of,  184. 

Foreign  capitalists  in  Spain,  177-179; 
clergy  excluded  from  the  colonies,  in; 
goods  in  the  colonies,  see  Contraband 
trade;  ships,  see  Ships. 

Foreigners  in  the  colonies,  102,  no,  151, 
186;  fined  by  the  Crown,  no,  in; 
in  colonial  navigation,  38,  39,  258- 
261,  302. 

Foreigners  in  colonial  trade,  see  Contra- 
band trade. 

Foreigners  in  the  slave  trade,  109. 

Foreigners,  naturalization  of,  18, 107-109. 

Fourquevaux,  M.,  169. 

Francis  I,  wars  of,  see  Charles  V. 

Freight  rates,  283,  284;  receipts  exempt 
from  averia,  74,  75  n. 

French  trade  with  Spanish  America,  19, 
63,  66,  114  and  n.,  116. 

French  West  India  Company,  249. 

Frigates,  265. 

Fugger,  Anton,  99. 

Fugger,  Jacob,  98. 

Fuggers,  mining  concessions  to,  in  Spain, 
47  n.,  159-161;  contract  for  the  colo- 
nization of  Chile,  99,  100. 

Gage,  Thomas,  188-190,  passim.  235. 
Galeoncetes,  265,  268. 
Galicia,  see  Biscay  provinces. 
Galindez  de  Carvajal,  Dr.  Lorenzo,  34, 

35- 
Galisteo,  Manuel,  196. 
Galleas,  264,  265. 


Gallego,  Vasco,  36. 

Galleons,  xi,  213,  263,  264. 

Galleys,  xi,  252,  253,  263. 

Galvao,  Antonio,  192. 

Gama,  Vasco  da,  23. 

Gaona,  Bernardino,  182. 

Garay,  Blasco  de,  309. 

Garcia,    Miguel,    see    Garcia    Torreiio, 

Nufio. 
Garcia  de  C^spedes,  Andres,  313. 
Garcia  de  Hermosilla,  Juan,  184. 
Garcia  de  Loaysa,  Francisco,  42  n. 
Garcia  Torreno,  Nuno,  36,  37  n. 
Gasca,  Pedro  de  la,  166,  167. 
Gasca  de  Salazar,  Diego,  46. 
Gavarras,  292. 

General  average,  see  Averia  gruesa. 
Genoese  merchants  in  Spain,  see  Italian 

merchants. 
German  capitalists  in  Spanish  America, 

see  Fuggers;  Welsers. 
German  merchants  in  Portugal,  23. 
German  miners  in  Spanish  America,  99. 
Gibraltar  (Spain),  13,  14. 
Gibraltar  (Venezuela),  87,  250. 
Gij6n  y  Le6n,  Manuel,  197. 
Gild,  see  Consulado;  Mariners'  gild. 
Gipsies    excluded    from    the    colonies, 

104  n,,  no. 
Gobernador  of  the  armadas,  219,  220. 
Gobierno  (ship),  220. 
Godolphin,  Sir  William,  248,  250. 
Gold,  see  Bullion. 
Gomera  (Canary  Islands),  19. 
Gonzalez  Ddvila,  Gil  (historian),  quoted, 

xii,  xiii. 
Gonzalez  Ddvila,  Gil  (explorer),  191. 
Gonzalez  de  Le6n,  Sebastian,  50. 
Goodson,  Vice  Admiral  Sir  William,  245. 
Grammont,  Sieur  de  (buccaneer),  249. 
Grand  Canary,  19,  20. 
Grenville,  Sir  Richard,  77. 
Grillo,  Domingo,  270,  271. 
Grimaldi,  firm  of,  177. 
Grume tes,  272,  277. 
Guadalcanal,  silver  mine  of,  47  and  n., 

159- 
Guadaldizar,  Marquis  of,  241. 


364 


INDEX 


Guards  on  merchant  ships,  to  prevent 

fraud,  225,  290,  292. 
Guatemala,  restrictions  on  trade  with, 

126,  146,  150;    proposed  trade  route 

through,  184,  185. 
Guayaquil,  149  n.,  150,  184,  241. 
Guerra  y  de  Cespedes,  Francisco  de  la, 

152. 
Guevara,  Antonio  de,  49. 
Guinea,  trade  with,  5  n.,  60  n. 
Guipuzcoa,  Company  of ,  119,  138. 
Gumiel,  Nuno  de,  21  n. 
Gutierrez,  Sancho,  302. 
Gutierrez  Flores,  Dr.  Pedro,  10  n. 
Guzman,  Gonzalo  de,  231. 

Hacienda  real,  see  Exchequer,  royal. 

Hampton,  Thomas,  116. 

Hardware,  importation  of,  into  the  col- 
onies, 124,  135  n.,  268,  271. 

Haro,  Luis  de,  55  n. 

Haros,  firm  of,  177  and  n. 

Havana,  87  and  n.,  139,  189,  244;  at- 
tacked by  corsairs,  68,  234;  port  of 
call  for  the  fleets,  71,  72,  139,  201,  203, 
207  and  n.;  shipbuilding  at,  268. 

Hawkins,  John,  19, 77,82, 116, 204n.,  210. 

Hawkins,  Richard,  240. 

Hawkins,  William,  116. 

Hawks,  Henry,  127. 

Henry  II  (of  France),  71. 

Henry  VII  (of  England),  22. 

Henry,  the  Navigator,  Prince,  304, 305. 

Heretics  excluded  from  the  colonies,  xii, 
104,  105, 107. 

Hermite,  Jacques  1',  240,  241. 

Hernandez,  Antonio,  278. 

Hernandez  Franco,  Bartolom6,  60  n. 

Herrera,  Juan  de,  325. 

Heyn,  Pieter  Pieterzoon,  171,  237,  238. 

Hieronymite  governors  of  the  Indies,  9, 
106, 124,  267. 

Hispaniola,  5,  6,  22  n.,  40,  102,  116,  124, 
125,  139,  155,  156,  158,  163,  244,  249 
petitions  from,  9,  26,  97,  104,  106,  233, 
251;  secures  special  privileges,  11,  18, 
85  n.,  87  and  n.;  population  declines, 
106,  107  n.    See  also  San  Domingo. 


Honduras,  ^7  and  n.,  139,  150,  157,  204; 
proposed  trade  route  through,  184, 
185. 

Honduras,  Company  of,  138. 

Honduras  Ships,  79,  207  n.,  237. 

Horses,  export  of,  to  the  colonies  for- 
bidden, 134, 135. 

Hospital  for  mariners  at  Seville,  320, 
321. 

Howard,  Lord  Charles,  of  Effingham, 
82. 

Huancav61ica,  mines  of,  156,  160,  161. 

Humboldt,  Alexander  von,  cited  in  text, 
123,  132,  156,  197. 

Hungary,  quicksilver  from,  51. 

Hydrographic  Office  (Madrid),  xv. 

Ibarra,  Carlos  de,  242,  243. 

India  House,  see  Casa  de  Contrataci6n  of 
Seville. 

Indians,  tribute  from,  27,  92;  exploita- 
tion of,  128,  132,  133;  permitted  to 
develop  mines,  156  and  n. 

Indies,  see  East  Indies;  Spanish  America. 

Indultos,  65,  66,  113,  114. 

Industries,  colonial,  Spanish  policy  re- 
garding, 123,  125-130. 

Informers,  31,  61  and  n. 

Inquisition,  105,  135. 

Inspection  of  ships  and  cargoes,  11,  12,. 
16,  29,  30,  61,  281,  282  n.,  287-292. 

Insurance,  marine,  41,  286,  287,  344-353. 

Inter-colonial  trade,  see  Custom  duties; 
Peru. 

Interlopers,  see  Contraband  trade. 

Intestates  in  the  colonies,  see  Bienes  de 
difuntos. 

Iron,  imported  into  the  colonies,  135  n.,. 

155- 
Isabella,  queen  of  Castile,  3  n.,  4,  28,  96,. 

97.    See  also  Catholic  Kings. 
Isabella  (wife  of  Charles  V),  307. 
Isasaga,  Pedro  Ochoa,  21  n.,  28,  29. 
Istapa,  port  of,  184. 
Italian    merchants    in    Spain,  xxiv,  8, 

114  n.,  178  n.;  in  Portugal,  23. 
Itinerario    de    navegacidn,    of    Juan    de 

Escalante  de  Mendoza,  312. 


INDEX 


365 


Jackson,  Wflliam,  234,  235. 

Jalapa,  204  n. 

Jamaica,  139,  196,  235,  247-251,  passim; 

Cromwell's   expedition   against,    194, 

244,  245. 
James  I  (of  England),  234. 
Jer6z  de  la  Frontera,  108. 
Jettison,  82  n. 
Jews  excluded  from  the  colonies,  104, 

105. 
Joanna,  queen  of  Castile,  3,  28, 40, 41, 98. 
John  II  (of  Castile),  156. 
John  II  (of  Portugal),  305. 
JoU,  Cornelius,  242. 
Juan  Fernandez  (island),  240,  241. 
Judge  of  the  averia,  73,  74  n. 
Jueces  de  registros  (Canary  Islands),  19, 

20. 
Jueces  letrados  of  the  Casa,  57,  58. 
Jueces  oficiales  of  the  Casa,  27,  42.    See 

also  Comptroller;   Factor;  Treasurer. 
Jueces  oficiales  supemumerarios,  55. 
Juez  asesor  of  the  Casa,  57. 
Juez  conservador  of  the  Lonja,  55. 
Juez  de  alzadas,  44,  45  n. 
Junta  de  guerra  y  armadas  de  Indias, 

218,  221. 
Jurisdiction  of  the  Casa,  see  Casa  de 

Contrataci6n  of  Seville. 
Juros,  see  Annuities. 
Juzgado  de  Indias,  see  Cadiz. 

La  Antigua  del  Dari6n,  see  Santa  Maria 

del  Dari^n. 
Labat,  Jean-Baptiste,  121. 
La  Guayra,  87  and  n.,  119,  139. 
Laisa,  licentiate,  126. 
La  Palma  (Canary  Islands),  19,  20. 
La  Plata,  audiencia  of,  93. 
La  Raspuru,  Tomas  de,  see  Raspuru. 
Laredo,  15. 

La  Salle,  Robert  Cavelier,  Sieur  de,  244 n. 
La  Serna,  Fernando  de,  182. 
Laws  of  the  Indies,  see  Recopilaci6n. 
Lead  sheathing  for  ships,  see  Sheathing. 
Lepe,  Diego  de,  5. 
Lerma,  Francisco  Gomez  de  Sandoval, 

Duke  of,  260. 


Letrados  of  the  Casa,  42  and  n.,  57. 
Letters  of  marque,  issued  by  Spain,  256. 
Licenses  to  go  to  the  colonies,  S»  33  n.,  34, 

101-104;    to  return  to  Spain,  102  n.; 

to  trade  with  the  colonies,  97,  109;  for 

ships,  18,  259,  281-283. 
Lima,  95,  107  n.,  132,  188;   Portuguese 

in,  117. 
Lira,  Manuel  de,  138. 
Liri,  Antonio,  295. 
Lisbon,  13,  23,  25  n.,  117. 
Logwood  cutters,  257. 
Lombards  (artillery),  275. 
Lomelin,  Ambrosio,  270,  271. 
Longitude,  problem  of  finding,  305,  312. 
Lonja,  see  Casa  Lonja. 
Lonk,  Hendrik,  237. 
Lopez,  Gregorio,  201. 
Lopez  de  G6mara,  Francisco,  cited  in 

text,  163,  192. 
Lopez  de  Legaspi,  Miguel,  144,  146,  267. 
Lopez  de  Recalde,  Juan,  21  n.,  69. 
Lopez  de  Roelas,  Diego,  202. 
Lopez  de  Valdenebro,  Rui,  192. 
Lopez  de  Villalobos,  Rui,  144. 
Louis  XIII  (of  France),  243. 
Louis  XIV  (of  France),  114,  115  n.,  248, 

251. 
Louisiana,  244  n. 

Madeira,  68,  69. 

Maestres  de  plata,  220  and  n. 

Maestro  de  hacer  cartas,  36. 

Magellan,  Ferdinand,  25  n.,  38,  39,  144, 
190. 

Magellan,  strait  of,  voyage  via,  25  n.,  98, 
138,  144,  180. 

Magnetic  pole,  311. 

Malaga,  13,  15-17,  passim. 

Mancera,  Marquis  of,  152.   " 

Manifestaci6n,  66,  114. 

Manila,  144-149,  passim. 

Manoel  (king  of  Portugal),  23. 

Manrique,  Pedro,  69. 

Mansfield,' Edward  (buccaneer),  249,254. 

Maps  and  map-making,  see  Cartog- 
raphy; Cosmographers  of  the  Casa. 

Maracaibo,  87  n.,  119,  235,  250. 


366 


INDEX 


Margarita,  79,  87,  139,  189,  224. 

Mariquita,  188. 

Mariners'  gild  of  Seville,  86,  88,  216,  281, 

301,  320-322.    See  also  Comitres. 
Mariners'  wages,  see  Wages. 
Mariners'  hospital,  see  Hospital. 
Married  men  emigrating  to  the  colonies, 

102  n.,  151. 
Martinique,  118. 
Martyr,  Peter,  163,  309. 
Masters  of  ships,  24,  25  and  n.,  60  n.,  62, 

314,  315;  bonds  of,  59,  103,  315,  316. 

See  also  Mariners'  gild. 
Matanzas,  237,  238. 

Matienzo,  Dr.  Sancho  de,  21  and  n.,  33  n. 
Media  anata,  87,  88. 
Medina,  Bartolome  de,  158. 
Medina,  Fernando  de,  35. 
Medina,  Pedro  de,  302,  304  n.,  310,  311. 
Medinaceli,  Duke  of,  70,  152. 
Medina  Sidonia,  Duke  of,  70,  322. 
Medio-sacres,  275  n. 
Mendoza,  Pedro  de,  100  n. 
Menendez  de  Aviles,  Pedro,  77,  211,  217, 

228,  252,  264,  265. 
Mercado,  Diego  de,  194. 
Mercantilism  in  Spain,  123-130. 
Merchant  Adventurers  Trading  to  Rus- 
sia, 311. 
Merchants'  gild  of  Seville,  see  Consulado. 
Mercury,  see  Quicksilver. 
Metedores,  1 1 2  n. 
Mexico,  see  New  Spain. 
Mexico  City,  89,  95,  107  n.,  149. 
Mines  in  the  colonies,  5,  155-157. 
Mint  of  Seville,  66,  174,  176. 
Mocenigo,  Andrea,  163. 
Moluccas,  trade  with,  25  n.,  98, 145, 181. 
Monasteries  in  Spanish  America,  131,132. 
Moncada,  Dr.  Sancho  de,  164. 
Monopoly  of  trade,  see  Crown;  Seville; 

Trade. 
Montealegre,  Marquis  of,  210. 
Monte  jo,  Francisco  de,  184. 
Moors,  see  Moslems. 
Morales,  Andres  de,  309,  310. 
Morgan,  Henry  (buccaneer),  187,  194, 

249,  250,  254. 


Moslems  excluded  from  the    colonies, 

104,  105,  107,  134,  135. 
Munibe,  Andres  de,  55. 
Munitions  for  the  fleets,  49,  50,  79. 
Mufioz,  Juan  Bautista,  196,  197. 
Myngs,  Christopher,  248. 

Nao,  263. 

Naturalization,  see  Foreigners,  naturali- 
zation of. 

Nauerre,  M.  de  la,  196. 

Nautical  instruction,  see  Cosmography, 
professor  of;  Pilot  major. 

Nautical  instruments,  see  Astrolabe; 
Compass;  Cross-staff;  Quadrant. 

Nautical  instruments,  making  of,  36,  38, 
307,  308,  314. 

Nautical  science  in  Spain,  xxii,  299,  304, 
305,  308-314. 

Navarrese  admitted  to  colonial  trade, 
98  n. 

Navarro,  Antonio,  294. 

Navidad,  146. 

Navigation  to  the  Indies,  see  Fleets. 

Navio  del  Oro,  189. 

Navios  de  registro,  87,  88,  213,  282. 

Navy,  see  ShipsK)f-war;  Armada. 

Negroes,  see  Slave  trade. 

Nelson,  Horatio,  196. 

Netherlands,  see  Dutch  trade;  Flanders 
trade. 

Nevis,  119. 

New  Christians,  see  Conversos. 

New  Galicia,  185. 

New  Granada,  65,  81,  161,  166.  See  also 
Cartagena  de  Indias. 

"  New  Laws  "  of  Charles  V,  92,  202. 

New  Spain,  65,  69,  81,  82,  89,  94,  106, 
125  n.,  157,  166,  212,  254;  fleets  to, 
79,  203-214,  passim;  textile  manu- 
factures of,  126,  127;  remittances  of 
bullion,  166  n.,  167  n.,  207,  332;  price 
of  quicksilver  in,  see  Quicksilver;  trade 
with  Peru,  see  Peru;  trade  with  the 
Philippines,  see  Philippine  Islands. 

Nicaragua,  157,  184. 

Nicaragua  canal  route,  see  Canal,  inter- 
oceanic. 


INDEX 


367 


Nicaragua,  Lake,  189, 191, 193, 194,  196. 

Nino,  Alonso,  5. 

Nino,  Andres  Garcia,  36. 

Nombre  de  Dios,  85,  151,  181,  182  n., 

184,  185,  201. 
Norte  de  la  contraiacUn  de  las  Indias, 

xvii,  3,  II,  55. 
Notaries,  see  Escribano. 
Novoa,  Matfas  de,  quoted,  215,  238. 
Nuestra  Senora  del  Buen  Aire,  321,  322. 
Nueva  C6rdoba,  87. 
Nunez  de  Balboa,  Vasco,  180,  190,  310. 
Nunez  de  Castro,  Alfonso,  cited  in  text, 

167. 
Nunez  Vela,  Blasco,  71,  77, 165, 170,  202. 

Oficial  mayor,  33  n.,  34  n. 

Oficiales  reales,  27,  59,  60  n.,  61  n.,  63 

and  n.,  88,  89,  92,  291;  relations  with 

the  executive  authorities,  93-95. 
Oidores  of  the  Casa,  see  Jueces  letrados. 
Ojeda,  Alonso  de,  5,  24,  309,  310, 
Olivares,  Caspar  de  Cuzman,  count  of, 

and  duke  of  San  Lucar,  35,  54  and  n., 

55  and  n.,  214,  243. 
Olive,  cultivation  of,  in  Peru,  126. 
Clonals,  r  (Nau,  Jean-David),  254. 
Onate,  Count  of,  35. 
Oquendo,  Antonio,  296. 
Oran,  14,  37,  103. 

Orchandiano,  Domingo  de,  21  n.,  33  n. 
Ordas,  Diego  de,  190. 
Ordinances  of  the   Casa,   see  Casa  de 

Contrataci6n  of  Seville. 
Ordnance,  see  Artillery. 
Ortiz  de  Matienzo,  Pedro,  9,  10. 
Ovando,  Nicolas  de,  6,  7,  22  n.,  26,  27, 

97,  104,  310. 

Pacific  Ocean,  navigation  of,  144;  search 
for  a  strait  to,  190,  191;  shipbuilding 
on  the  shores  of,  267. 

Padr6n  real,  306-308. 

Pagador  de  averias,  51. 

Palos,  7. 

Panama  city,  93,  107  n.,  126,  145,  146, 
147,  151,  180-190,  250. 

Panama,  isthmus  of,  highway  across. 


180-186,  passim;  canal  through,  see 
Canal,  inter-oceanic. 

Panuco,  184. 

Papagayo,  port  of,  194. 

Pasavolantes,  272,  275. 

Pasquier,  Pedro,  296. 

Passengers  on  ships  to  the  colonies,  76, 
219  and  n.,  273.    See  also  Registration. 

Pataches,  78,  79,  204,  210,  264. 

Paternalism  of  the  Spanish  crown,  123, 
124. 

Paterson,  William,  195. 

Patronus,  315,  318. 

Payta,  149  188,  189. 

Pearls,  47  and  n.,  79, 165  and  n.,  186, 189. 

Penalties  for  infraction  of  rules  govern- 
ing the  colonial  trade,  13, 14,  31,  34  n., 
61,  62,  65,  80,  103,  108,  136,  139,  222, 
229,  281,  285,  286. 

Penas  de  casados,  102  n. 

Perez,  Diego,  232. 

Perez,  Dr.  Heman,  44,  301,  302. 

Periaguas,  256. 

Perico,  harbor  of,  187. 

Pemambuco,  236,  242. 

Peru,  24,  58  n.,  65,  71,  81,  82  and  n.,  85, 
93,  94,  157,  166,  168,  212,  254;  trade 
with  New  Spain,  iii,  146,  147,  149, 
150,  187,  255;  Central  America,  126, 
150,  152;  the  Orient,  145, 146;  Spain, 
188-190;  via  Buenos  Aires,  see 
Buenos  Aires;  production  of  wine, 
125, 126, 129;  textiles,  127-129;  quick- 
silver, see  Huancavelica;  remittances 
of  buUion,  see  BulUon;  Crown;  pri- 
vateers on  coasts  of,  195,  240,  241. 

Philip  I  (of  Spain),  28,  29,  36. 

Philip  II  (of  Spain),  11, 17, 19,  24, 38, 44- 
46,  56,  57,  72,  73,  77,  85  n.,  86,  90,  loi, 
108,  III,  116,  126,  127,  137,  156,  160, 
166,   173,    192,    193,    203,    259,    269, 

325- 
PhiUp  III  (of  Spain),  87,  132,  171,  194, 

236,  270,  305. 
Philip  IV  (of  Spain),  53-55,  78, 171,  243, 

270. 
Philippine  Islands,  trade  with,  xxi,  iii, 

143-149,  255. 


368 


INDEX 


Pilot  major  of  Castile,  35-38,  298-302, 

305-308. 
Pilot  major  of  England,  39. 
Pilot  major  of  the  fleet,  219, 224,314, 316. 
Pilots,  314-316,  passim;  royal,  36,  37. 
Pinelo,  Francisco,  21  and  n. 
Pinz6n,  Vicente  Yanez,  5,  24,  36. 
Pirates,  see  Corsairs. 
Pizarro,  Gonzalo,  166. 
Pizarro,  Hernando,  168. 
Pole  Star  of  American  Trade,  see  Norte  de 

la  contratacion  de  las  Indias. 
Popayan,  188. 

Population  of  colonial  cities,  107  n. 
Port  Royal  (Jamaica),  247,  248. 
Portazgo,  see  Admiralty  dues. 
Porto  Bello,  79,  91,  138,  185,  188-190, 

194,  250. 
Porto  Rico,  II,  82,  87  and  n.,  124,  139, 

156,  244. 
Ports  of  entry  in  Spanish  America,  138. 
Portugal,  xi,  xxiii,  13,  23,  25  n.,  39,  68; 

trade  with  the  Spanish  colonies,  66, 

113, 116, 117. 
Portuguese  in  Spanish  America,  104, 105, 

no. 
Portuguese  mariners  in  Spain,  39. 
Postmaster-general  of  the  colonies,  34, 

35,  52. 
Potosf,  no,  160,  161,  166,  181,  189  n., 

333-335- 

Precious  metals,  see  Bullion. 

President  of  the  Casa,  12,  33  n.,  46,  47, 
53,  54,  58. 

Prices  in  the  colonies,  91,  137,  186  n., 
214,  278  n.,  279,  280. 

Prior  and  consuls  of  the  Seville  mer- 
chants, 43,44,  62,  73,  74,  78,  281,  285, 
325- 

Privateers,  Spanish,  in  the  West  Indies, 
256,  257. 

Prizes  at  sea,  69,  222  n. 

Proctors  from  the  colonies  in  Spain,  40, 

97, 139. 
Prohibited  articles  in  colonial  trade,  26, 

134-136. 
Providence,  Old  (island),  120,  250. 
Provisioning  of  the  fleets,  see  Fleets. 


Puebla  de  los  Angeles,  107  n.,  127. 
Puerto  Cabello,  119,  247. 
Puerto  de  Caballos,  184,  207  n. 
Pumps,  marine,  308,  309. 
Purveyor-general  of  fleets  and  armadas, 

49,  50  and  n.,  75. 
Purveyors  of  the  averia,  79,  80. 

Quadrant,  304  n. 

Quicksilver,  supply  of,  to  the  colonies, 

50,  51,  74  n.,  157-162;  produced  in 
America,  155, 160;  obtained  from  Ger- 
many, 159, 160, 162;  price  of,  161, 162. 

Quintaladas,  317. 

Quintanilla,  Jorge,  193. 

Quinto,  of  bullion,  64,  92,  156,  157,  333- 

335;  of  pearls,  165  n. 
Quito,  189, 195. 

Rancherias,  189. 

Raspuru,  Tomds  de  la,  13,  166,  169,  171, 

239,  296. 
Reader  of  the  Casa,  57  n. 
Receptor  de  averias,  51,  53  and  n.,  74,  75. 
Recopilacion  de  leyes  de  los  reynos  de  las 

Indias,  xviii. 
Regimiento  de  navegacion,  of  Pedro  de 

Medina,  311. 
Regimiento  de  navegacidn  y  de  la  hidro- 

grafia,  of  Andres  Garcia  de  Cespedes, 

313. 
Registers  of  ships,  11,  15,  18,  25,  33  n., 

59,  60  and  n.,  63  and  n.,  64,  88,  89, 

103, 168,  281,  290. 
Registration  in  colonial  trade,  4,  5,  7, 

14-16,   25,  27,   29,   59-67,  102,  105; 

abolished  for  goods  from  America,  80, 

81;  frauds  in,  5ee  Contraband  trade. 
Registros  sueltos,  see  Navios  de  registro. 
Relator,  see  Reader. 
Revenues  from  America,  see  Crown. 
Rhodes,  law  of,  82  n. 
Ribera,  P.  Henriques  de,  167  n. 
Ribero,  Diego,  36,  37  n.,  39,  306,  307, 

308,  309. 
Richelieu,  cardinal,  210,  243. 
Rio  de  la  Hacha,  77,  85  n.,  87,  119,  139, 

24s,  250. 


INDEX 


369 


Rio  de  la  Plata,  37,  100  n.;  contraband 

trade  on,  see  Buenos  Aires. 
Rios,  Martin  Alonso  de  los,  71,  76,  165. 
Rios,  Pedro  de  los,  180,  182. 
Rodriguez  C6mitre,  Diego,  287. 
Rodriguez  de  Fonseca,  Juan,  3,  21,  40. 
Rodriguez  de  Valdes  y  de  la  Banda, 

Diego,  141. 
Rodriguez  Farfan,  Cosme,  64,  201,  211, 

294. 
Rodriguez  Sardo,  Juan,  299. 
Roelas,  Pedro  de  las,  77,  211. 
Rouen,  24. 

Royal  monopoly  of  trade,  see  Crown. 
Royalties  on  mines  in  the  colonies,  156, 

157.    See  also  Quinto. 
Ruesta,  Sebastian  de,  308. 

Saavedra  Ceron,  Alvaro  de,  191. 

Sacres,  274. 

Sacro  Bosco,  Joannes  de,  303  n.,  313. 

Sailing  routes,  see  Fleets. 

Sailors,  see  Mariners. 

Saint  Domingue,  249,  251. 

St.  Kitts,  118,  119,  235. 

St.  Martin  (island),  120. 

St.  Vincent,  Cape,  13,  68,  69,  70  and  n., 

202. 
Sala  de  justicia,  of  the  Casa,  57,  58. 
Salas  Valdes,  Juan  de,  295. 
Sale  of  public  oflSces,  54,  56,  94, 151,  218, 

288. 
Salinas,  Marquis  of,  214. 
Sanchez  Colchero,  Diego,  301. 
Sanchez  de  la  Parra,  Miguel,  no. 
Sanchez  de  la  Tesorerla,  Juan,  97. 
San  Domingo,  city  of,  9,  68,  99,  106, 

107  n.,  116,  139,  201,  202,  244. 
Sandoval,  licentiate,  202. 
Sandwich,  Edward  Montagu,  Earl  of, 

248. 
San  Gabriel  (Rio  de  la  Plata),  142. 
San  Juan  de  Ulua,  see  Vera  Cruz. 
San  Juan  River  (Nicaragua),  184,  189, 

191,  193,  194. 
San  Luoar  de  Barrameda,  7,  11,  14,  58, 

86,  no;  delays  at,  8,  10,  72,  73,  208, 

213,  262. 


San  Martin,  Andr6s  de,  36,  307. 

San  Miguel,  gulf  of,  180. 

San  Salvador  (Brazil),  236. 

San  Sebastian,  15. 

Santa  Catalina,  see  Providence,  Old. 

Santa  Cruz,  Alonso  de,  311,  312. 

Santa  Cruz  (Canary  Islands),  13,  18, 
246. 

Santa  Cruz  (West  Indies),  120. 

Santa  Fe  de  Bogotd,  95,  188. 

Santa  Maria  (Azores),  70. 

Santa  Maria  del  Darien  (La  Antigua), 
180,  310. 

Santa  Marta,  87  and  n.,  233,  245,  247, 
250. 

Santander,  13. 

San  Tehno,  College  of,  88,  322. 

Santiago  de  Cuba,  68,  107  n.,  139,  203, 
232,  233,  248,  250. 

Santiago  de  la  Vega  Qamaica),  235. 

Saragossa,  treaty  of  (1529),  25  n.,  144. 

Schapenham,  Hugues,  241. 

Schmidt,  Ulrich,  100  n. 

Seigniorage,  175. 

Serreno,  Juan,  36. 

Seville  monopoly  of  colonial  trade,  7  fif., 
82,  91,  103,  136,  137,  153,  256. 

Sharpe,  Bartholomew,  194,  195. 

Sheathing  of  ships,  277,  278,  308. 

Shipbuilding,  in  the  colonies,  124,  266- 
268,271;  in  Spain,  263-266,  269-271. 

Ship  captains,  see  Masters. 

Ships,  size  of,  8,  71,  79,  201,  212,  213, 
261-263;  by  law,  of  Spanish  owner- 
ship and  construction,  26,  258-260; 
foreign-built,  in  colonial  trade,  88, 
243,  259,  260,  270,  283;  sail  without 
convoy,  202,  205,  206;  armament  of, 
209,  272,  274-276,  280;  superannuated, 
in  colonial  trade,  211,  272,  276,  277; 
overloading  of,  216,  217,  239,  276,  293; 
manning  of,  272,  274,  293,  297;  rations 
on,  273,  278-281;  election  of,  for  the 
fleets,  281,  282;  disregard  of  ordinances 
relating  to,  292,  293;  loans  on  security 
of,  see  Bottomry  bills;  bounties  for 
building  of,  see  Bounties;  inspection 
of,  see  Inspection;    insurance  of,  see 


370 


INDEX 


Insurance,  marine;  sheathing  of,  see 
Sheathing;  construction  of,  see  Ship- 
building. 

Ship's  clerk,  24,  25  and  n.,  31,  59,  60  n., 
63  n. 

Ships-of-war,  hired  by  the  Crown,  206, 
269-271. 

Shipwrecks,  293-297. 

Silks,  manufactured  in  New  Spain,  126, 
127;  imported  from  China,  145. 

Silver,  see  Bullion. 

Simancas,  archives  at,  xv,  xviii. 

Slave  trade,  negro,  26,  99,  118,  119,  134, 
135,  140,  141,  270,  271. 

"Sloop  trade,"  121. 

Smuggling,  see  Contraband  trade. 

Sociedad  de  los  Amigos  de  Madrid,  197. 

Solicitors  of  the  Casa,  42  n. 

Sol6rzano  Pereira,  Juan  de,  45  n.,  137, 

239. 
Sore,  Jacques,  233,  234. 
Soria,  Juan  de,  7. 
Soriano,  Michel,  163. 
Sosa,  Francisco  de,  295. 
South  Sea,  see  Pacific  Ocean. 
Spain,  colonial  policy,  xii,  96,  123-134, 

153;  declme  of,  xxiii,  47,  63,  127,  153, 

154,   243,    270,  271;    imperialism  of, 

178,  179;  navy  of,  see  Ships-of-war. 
Spanish  America,  civilization  of,  xiif., 

130-134;  administration  of,  3,  21,  22, 

92-95,  150-152;   military  defenceless- 

ness  of,  233,  243,  244. 
Spice   trade,    23,    180,    181.    See   also 

Moluccas. 
Spilbergen,  Joris,  240. 
Stayner,  Sir  Richard,  245,  246. 
Storekeeper  of  the  Casa,  50,  52. 
Suarez  de  Carvajal,  Juan,  46. 
Subsidies  of  the  Seville  merchants  to  the 

king,  171,  172,  325. 
Sugar,  II,  19,  124,  125  and  n. 
Suma    de    cosmografia,    of    Pedro    de 

Medina,  311. 
Suma  de  geografia,  of  Martin  Fernandez 

de  Enciso,  310. 
Sumptuary  laws  in  the  colonies,  131. 
Sweeting,  John,  258, 


Tabasco,  87  n. 

Tehuantepec,  isthmus  of,  190,  192,  195. 
Tello  de  Guzman,  Juan,  202, 203, 211, 252. 
Tenedor  de  bastimentos,  see  Storekeeper 

of  the  Casa. 
Tenerife,  18-20,  passim. 
Tercio  de  galeones,  219,  220. 
Teredo  (ship worm),  277. 
Textile  industry  in  the  colonies,  124, 126- 

129. 
Textiles  imported  from  the  Orient,  see 

China. 
Thirty  Years'  War,  210,  214. 
Tiepolo,  Niccold,  163. 
Tierra  Firme,  fleets  to,  72,  79, 80,  203- 

214,  passim;  canal  through,  see  Canal, 

inter-oceanic.     See  also  Nombre  de 

Dios;  Panama;  Porto  Bello. 
Tithes,  ecclesiastical,  106,  131. 
Tobacco,  119,  129. 

Toledo,  Fadrique  de,  119,  171,  236,  296. 
Toledo,  Francisco  de,  93,  126-128,  151, 

152,  183. 
Tolu,  247,  250. 
Tomson,  Robert,  258. 
Tonelada,  284  and  n. 
Tonnage  dues,  86-88. 
Tordesillas,  treaty  of  (1494)  >  148. 
Torres,  Francisco  de,  36. 
Tortuga  (ofif  Hispaniola),  120,  249,  251. 
Trade   with  America,   a  monopoly  of 

Spain,  xii,  26,  96-98,  loi,  107,  108, 

153;  see  also  Crown;  Seville;  decline 

of,  12,  129,  147,  153,  187,  213-215, 

243;    foreigners   in,  see  Contraband 

trade;  Ships. 
Trading  companies,  exclusive,  137,  138. 
Treasurer  of  the  Casa,   21,   26  n.,  $3, 

34n.,  47-49,  S2n.,  95. 
Treasurers,  royal,  in  the  colonies,  4,  27, 

30,  88. 
Treasury  oflScials  in  the  colonies,  see 

Oficiales  reales. 
Treatises   on   navigation,  see   Nautical 

science. 
Triana,  86,  321. 
Tribunal  de  la  contaduria,  of  the  Casa, 

52,  54  n.,  95;  in  the  colonies,  95. 


INDEX 


371 


Trinidad,  87  and  n.,  139- 
Truxillo  (Peru),  189. 
Tnixillo  (Honduras),  235,  250. 
Tuna  fisheries  of  Andalusia,  25  n. 

Uni6n  de  las  armas  cat61icas,  254,  255. 
Universidad  de  los  Mareantes  de  Sevilla, 

see  Mariners'  gild. 
Ureas,  213,  264. 
Urdaneta,  Andr6s  de,  144. 
Ursua,  Pedro  de,  13. 

Vaca  de  Castro,  Cristobal,  165. 

Valdivia,  241. 

Valdiviedo,  Antonio  de,  267. 

Valle  de  la  Cerda,  Luis,  163. 

Veedor,de  fundiciones  y  rescates,  27  n.; 
de  la  artillerla,  son.;  on  the  fleets, 
74,  75,  220.^ 

Veitia  Lmaje,'joseph  de,  xvii  f.;  cited  in 
text,  3,  II,  IS,  18  n.,  64-66,  76,  78,  79, 
82  n.,  91,  96,  113,  114,  161,  20s,  308. 

Velasco,  Diego  Ferdinand  de,  194. 

Velasco,  Luis  de,  128. 

Velazquez,  Diego,  267. 

Velvets,  see  Silks. 

Venables,  General  Robert,  244. 

Venezuela,  85  n.,  iss,  189;  trade  with 
the  Dutch,  118,  129.  See  also  Gui- 
puzcoa,  Company  of;  Welsers. 

Venice,  Sebastian  Cabot's  relations  with, 

37. 
Venta  Cruz,  182-185,  passim. 
Vera  Cruz,  28,  77,  79-81,  89,  138,  162, 

204  and  n.,  207. 
Verrazano,  Giovanni  da,  70. 
Vespucci,  Am^rico,  35-38,  passim,  298, 

306. 
Vespucci,  Juan,  36,  37  n.,  307. 


Viceroys  in  America,  relations  of,  with 

the  exchequer,  93-95- 
Vigo,  13. 

Villars,  Marquis  of,  114. 
Visitadores,  287-291. 
Vitoria,  fray  Francisco  de,  140. 

Wages  of  Spanish  seamen,  63,  74,  3^6- 

319,  342,  343- 
Welsers,  in  American  trade,  98,  icon., 

158,  165  n.;  colonization  of  Venezuela 

by,  99-101. 
West  Indies,  poverty  of  the  settlements 

in,  83,  8s  n.,  124,  125;    colonized  by 

English,  French,  and  Dutch,  118-120; 

trade  with,  138-140;    English  naval 

war  in,  244,  245,  247;  corsairs  in,  see 

Buccaneers;  Corsairs. 
Windsor,  Thomas,  Lord,  247,  248. 
Wine,  export  of,  to  the  colonies,  10,  19, 

40,  124,  125,  217  n.,  318;   duties  on, 

84  n.,  85;  production  of,  in  Peru,  see 

Peru. 
Woad,  106. 
Women,  emigration  of,  to  the  colonies, 

102  n..  Ill,  151. 
Wool  exported  from  Peru,  182.    See  also 

Textiles. 

Ximenes  de  Cisneros,  cardinal,  106. 
Xuarez  de  Castillo,  Pedro,  76. 

Yucatan,  139. 

Zamorano,  Rodrigo  de,  300  n.,  313. 

Zapata,  Alonso,  301. 

Zipangu,  xii. 

Zultepeque,  silver  mines  of,  100. 


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